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DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


DIVINITY SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 














= - 









THE HISTORY 


OF 


THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL: 


An Qld Testament Primer, 


BY 


CRAWFORD H. TOY, 


PROFESSOR OF HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


FIFTEENTH EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
UNITARIAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIETY, 


25 BEACON STREET. 


1905. 








_ Copyright, 1882, 
_ By Unrranian Sunpar-Scuoor Sc 








PREFACE. 





Ir has been thought best to present the whole History of 
Israel in one course of lessons. This could not be done with- 
out great compression of the matter; but it is hoped that the 
Primer in this shape will not be beyond the grasp of children 
of twelve years and upwards. 

Where the condensation is so great, much is necessarily left 
to the knowledge and discretion of the teacher. He must 
treat the various subjects as he thinks best for his class, 
—abridging here, and expanding there; dividing one lesson 
into two, or throwing two into one; omitting one or more 
lessons, if he thinks fit, and substituting for them other mat- 
ter. He must freely discuss the opinions expressed in the 
Primer, dissenting from and modifying them according to 
his best judgment. 

One or two suggestions may be made as to the conduct of 
the lessons. It is very desirable that the teacher should 
bring himself into hearty sympathy with the period studied, 
so as to give his pupils a vivid picture of its outward circum- 
stances and its thought. The cultivation of the historical 
sense will be worth more than the acquisition of facts. To 
aid him in this task a short list of books of reference is ap- 
pended to each lesson. Only such books are mentioned as 
it is believed will be useful to Sunday-school instructors. 
Every Sunday-school should have a reference library. (See 
the List of Books on page xi; also Catalogue of Books 
recommended by the Ladies’ Commission, Boston, 1871.) 


iv PREFACE. 


Maps and charts should be freely used. Each class ought 
to have its own apparatus of these necessary helps to histori- 
cal study. 

Words strange to children should be carefully explained. 
Occasionally it may be well to spend the whole time of the 
lesson in fixing in the pupil’s mind the signification of a sin- 
gle term; for example, “monotheism.” When he has once 
really acquired this, it will save him from many misconcep- 
tions, and make all his succeeding reading easier. 

The scholars must be encouraged to read the Old Testa- 
ment, not as a lesson, but for its own sake; and each one 
should be provided with, and should bring regularly to the 
class, a copy of the Bible. The Apocrypha, also, should be 
accessible." The teacher may suggest a chapter in one of 
the historical books, or the prophets, or elsewhere, and try 
to awaken a lively interest in it. If possible, he should 
talk with the scholars on such passages outside of the 
schoo]-room. 

It is suggested that the Introductory Lesson be gone over 
rapidly at the beginning of the course, and then more care- 
fully at its close. But this, as well as quarterly and other 
reviews, must be left to the teacher’s judgment, or the de- 
cision of the school. The writer of these lessons, feeling 
strongly their meagreness, will be very glad to give such aid 
as he can to those teachers who may think it worth their 
while to apply to him. 


CONTENTS. 





JEEP AGIS le A, EON Sale ine ee et ea ae er 
(WORONOBOGIONE CAREER Y y) 60, levels, 2 yea Seee ten 
Booxs oF REFERENCE. .... 


INTRODUCTORY WSSRON AEE Vedic teinie!o «\ V5 sie (ewe 


Lusson I.—The Beginnings of Hebrew History. The 
Races of the Earth. The Migrations of the Semites. The 
Nomadie Life of the Hebrews in Canaan. The Earliest 
Form of the Religion of Israel in Canaan. Their Wor- 
ship. Their Language . 


Lzsson II.— The Israelites in Egypt. The Greatness of the 
Egyptians. The Fertility of Egypt — Dependence of the 
Desert Tribes on it. The Israelites in Goshen. How the Is- 
raelites lived in Goshen. The Israelites forced into Hard 
Iiahor!by the Hpyptiangs) . 2/5... fk . , 


Lzsson II].— The Exodus and Moses. Bible Account of 
Moses and the Exodus. The Exodus and the March to 
Canaan. The Traditional Account of the Origin of the 
Law of Israel. What the Early Prophets said of Moses — 
Whether he borrowed anything from the blade Israel- 
itish Customs before Moses . See muticlaced es 


Lesson IV.— Moses and Yahwe (Jehovah). Yahwe, the 
God of Israel— His Original Character. Whether Moses 
Introduced the Worship of Yahwe— Whether he was a 
Monotheist. Is the Decalogue Monotheistic? Moses’ Work 
Uncertain. What Moses probably did . 


13 


18 


vil CONTENTS. 


Lesson V.— The Conquest and the Judges. The March 
from Goshen to Canaan. The Book of Joshua. The Time 
of the Judges. The Book of Judges. The Principal 
Judges. Civil and Religious Character of this Period 


Lesson VI.— Samuel and Saul. The Situation in the Time 
of Eli. Samuel’s Life and Work. The Life of Saul. The 
First Book-of Samuels. iis. 2 oe) aoe Sea 


Lesson VII.— David and Solomon. Legends of Great 
Men. David as King and Man. David as Religious Man 
and Poet. Solomon as King and Sage. Solomon’s Temple. 
The Books of Kings and Chronicles. The Chronology . . 


Lesson VIII.— Worship of the Calf and of Baal. The Di- 
vision of the Kingdom. The Dynasties of Jeroboam and 
Omri. Calf-Worship and Baal-Worship. Elijah and Elisha. 
Political and Religious History of Judah . . ..... 


Lesson IX. — The Fall of the Baal-Worship. The Contrast 
between the Worships of Israel and Canaan. Elijah and 
Elisha determine to root out Baalism. Jehu’s Reform. The 
Dynasty of Jehu. Political History of Judah. Religion 
in dudah sop) yea Se pe) oe ne ot ee ee el 


Lesson X.— The Prophets Amos and Hosea. Deyelop- 
ment of Israelitish Literature. The Different Sorts of 
Prophets and their Writings. Amos. Hosea. The Influ- 
ence of Amos and Hosea... = «.) 3) 


Lesson XJ.— The Fall of Israel. Ahaz and Hezekiah 
in Judah. The Fall of the Northern Kingdom. The Fate 
of the Israelites. Political History of Judah under Ahaz 
and Hezekiah. Religious History of Judah 


Lesson XII. — The Prophets Micah and Isaiah. The Groups 
of Prophets. The Times of Micah and Isaiah. Micah. 
The Life of Isaiah. Isaiah’s ih sia Isaiah’s Hope of 
the Future... . . oo, ce ay ee 


PAGE 


27 


47 


51 


CONTENTS. 


Lesson XIII. — The Reform of Josiah. Partial Character 
of Hezekiah’s Reform. The Reaction under Manasseh. 
Progress of the Yahwe Party. The Book of ciara es 
Reform under Josiah wpe ween A Phe aS 


Lesson XIV.— Jeremiah and the Fall of Jerusalem. The 
Capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. Nahum, Zephan- 
iah, and Habakkuk. Jeremiah’s Life. His Faith and 
Teaching. His Book ep hlorale KS 


Lesson XV.— The Exile. The Carrying Away of the Jews 
to Babylon. ~The Results of the Exile. Historical Books 
written at this Time. Obadiah and Lamentations . 


Lesson XVI.— The Prophets of the Exile. Condition of the 
Exiles. Ezekiel. The Second Isaiah. Other Exilian Writings 


Lesson XVII.— History and Prophetic Writings up to the 
Time of the Maccabees. Character of the Period. The 
Return from Exile. The Building of the Temple. Haggai 
and Zechariah. The History up to the Maccabees. Joel, 
Zechariah II., Zechariah III, Malachi 


Lesson XVIII. — Ezra’s Reform, and the Pentateuch. 
Progress of Legal and Priestly Ideas. What Ezra did. 
Formation of the Pentateuch. Character of the Pentateuch 


Lesson XIX.— Literature of the Ezra Period. The Period 
of Ezra. The Book of Chronicles. The Books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah. The Book of Jonah. The Book of Esther. 
The Book of Job. 


Lxsson XX.— The Hasmoneans. The Struggle for Free- 
dom. Antiochus Epiphanes. The Two Jewish Parties. 
The War of Freedom. The Hasmonean Dynasty. The 
Three Sects or Parties . sere Shei. a ence 


Lesson XXI.— Later Literature. 1. Ritual and Didactic. 
The Classes of the Literature. Psalms. Proverbs. Eccle. 
siasticus ; or, the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach. The Wis- 
dom of Solomon. Ecclesiastes; or, the Preacher. The 
DUH EMOLASON PA) ches) Moi jae sta, css he ais as wees 


Vii 


PAGE 


65 


69 


74 


83 


89 


93 


99 


103 


Vili |) CONTENTS. 


Lesson XXII. Later Literature. 2. Apocalyptic. 3. Philo- 
sophical and Historical. Character of the Apocalyptic 
Literature. Daniel. The Sibyl. Enoch. -Ezra. Other 
Works rere 


Lesson XXIII.— The Canon. Definition of “Canon.” The 
Time before Ezra. The Pentateuch. The Prophetical 
Books. The eer: The Alexandrian Canon. The 
Samaritan Canon . . PU 


Lesson XXIV.— The Scribes. The Study of the Law. For- 
mation of the Class of Scribes. Schools and Teachers. 
The Sanhedrin. Method and Influence of the Scribes 


Lesson XXV.— The Fall of Jerusalem. The Herod Family. 
The Roman Procurators. The wet and Fall. Change 
of Language. Christianity. .. . ste eue 


Lesson XXVI.— The Talmud. The Later Judaism. The 
Mishna. The Gemara. Contents of the Talmud. Other 
Literature 2 «tah ie A 


Lesson XXVII.— The Remaining Literature. Philo and 
Josephus. Bible Translations. The Masora. Grammars 
and Dictionaries. Expository and Philosophical Works. 
Cabbala. The Karaites. Poetry . ore eae 


Lesson XX VIII.— Outward History from the Fall of Je- 
rusalem. Proselyting. History in Palestine. In Babylonia. 
In Europe. Messianic Expectations . 


Lesson XXIX.— The Reform. Intellectual Isolation of the 
Jews. Progress. Moses Mendelssohn. Progress since Men- 
delssohn. The Present Condition of the Reform. The Or- 
thodox 0 2 we ee ae Se) ee 


Lesson XXX.— Conclusion. The Persistence of the Re- 
ligion of Israel. Its Character and Growth. Its Legacy 
TO WS). ieee call te lew hse) ioe! pane sie ne 


PAGE 


108 


113 


118 


123 


128 


132 


138 


148 


147 


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 








HISTORY. 


Migration of Hebrews from Meso- 
| potamia. 
First abode of the Hebrews in 


Egypt. 
Settlement of the Israelites in 
Egypt. 
Exodus under Moses. [ites. 
Conquest of Canaan by the Israel- 
Samuel. 
Accession of Saul 
Accession of David. 


Accession of Solomon. 


Division of the kingdom. Acces- 
sion of Jeroboam of Israel and 
Rehoboam of Judah. 

Accession of Asa of Judah. 

Accession of Omri of Israel. 

Accession of Ahab of Israel. 

Accession of Jehoshaphat of Judah. 

Elijah begins his prophetic work. 

Overthrow of the Omri dynasty by 
Jehu. Prophet Elisha active. 
Athaliah usurps the throne of 
Judah. 

Accession of Jeroboam IT. of Israel. 

Accession of Hezekiah of Judah. 

Fall of the kingdom of Israel. 

Accession of Manasseh. 


Accession of Josiah. 


Battle of Megiddo and death of 
Josiah. 


Deportation of Jews to Babylon. 
Fall of the kingdom of Judah. 


Capture of Babylon by Cyrus. 
Return of the Jews to Canaan. 


Completion of the second temple. 
First visit of Ezra to Jerusalem. 


LITERATURE. 
Egyptian Book of the Dead. 


Folk-poetry in Israel. 


Beginning of written records in 
Israel. Lyrical pieces. 

Beginning of Iszaelitish gnomic 
literature. 


(cal writing. 
First attempts at connected histori- 


First written collections of laws. 


Prophets Amos and Hosea. 
Prophets Isaiah and Micah. 


Various lyrical religious pieces. 
Prophet Nahum. 


Deuteronomy, Zephaniah. 


Habakkuk. 

Jeremiah. 626-580. Ezekiel. 593- 
570. 

Obadiah. Lamentations. Psalms, 


Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings. 
The Second Isaiah. 


Haggai, Zech. i.-viii. 


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, 


HISTORY. 


Nehemiah governor of Judea. Ezra 
and Nehemiah introduce the 
nearly completed Law. 


Onias IIT. high-priest. 

Antiochus Epiphanes profanes the 
temple of Jerusalem. 

Revolt of the Jews. 

Judas Maccabzeus purifies the tem- 


ple. Institution of the Feast of 
Dedication. 





John Hyrcanus I. destroys the Sa- 
maritan temple on Mt. Gerizim. 


pene. takes Jerusalem. 
Herod king of Judea. 

Begins to rebuild the temple. 
Birth of Christ. 


Destruction of Jerusalem. 


Messianic uprising under Bar- 
cochba. 


Overthrow of the 
Patriarchate. 

Death of Maimonides. 

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. 


Babylonian 


Death of Joseph Karo, the second 
Maimonides. 

The pretended Messiah, Shabbathai 
Zwi, sets out on his march to 
Jerusalem. 

Death of Moses Mendelssohn, 


LITERATURE, 


Malachi. 


The Pentateuch receives its final 
form. 


Chronicles, Zech. ix.-xiv,, Joel. 


Septuagint begun. 
Esther. 


Daniel. 


Psalms and Proverbs completed. 


| Eccles. Song of Songs. Son of 
Sirach. ae 1 anealiees. 


Close of the Canon. Septuagint 
[completed. 
Book of Enoch, 


Targum of Onkelos. Greek version 
of Old Testament by Aquila. 

The Mishna. 

Targum of Jonathan. 

Jerusalem Talmud. 

Babylonian Talmud. 


Bomberg’s Rabbinical Bible. 


BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 


Norte. — For the convenience of Bible-teachers, the following list of books of 
reference on the Old Testament, fuller than those given in the text, is appended. 
In imported books the shilling represents about 35 cents, the mark about the 
same, and the franc about 30 cents. By direct importation through the mail, 
these prices may be lowered. 


(@ The most useful of the larger books for Sunday-School teachers are 
marked with one asterisk, and of these the most essential with two asterisks. 


> 


DICTIONARIES. 


Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. American edition, by Hackett and 
Abbot. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1868. 4 vols. $20.00. 

— Concise Dictionary. Boston. 1865. $4.50. * 

— Smaller Dictionary. Boston. 1865. $3.00. 

Herzog’s Real-Encyclopidie fiir Protestantische Theologie und 
Kirche. Leipzig: Hinrichs. New edition coming out by num- 
bers, of which 105 have appeared. Per number, 1 mark. 

Schenkel’s Bibel-Lexicon. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1865-75. 65 vols. 
45 marks. : 

McClintock and Strong’s Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia. 
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1869-. 10 vols. Per vol.,5.00. * 

Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. Third edition. Philadel- 
phia: Lippincott, 1870. $25.00. 

—— Popular Cyclopedia. Philadelphia: Henry Bill, 1863. $4.50. 

F. Lichtenberger, Encyclopédie des Sciences Religieuses. Paris: 
Fischbacher. 13 vols. Per vol., 124 francs. 

Cruden’s Concordance, condensed. New York. $1.50. * 

R. D. Hitcheock, Analysis of the Bible (by subjects) ; with Cruden’s 
Concordance as revised by Eadie. New York: A. J. Johnson, 
1870. $6.00. * 


xii BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 


CRITICISM. 


F. Bleek, Introduction. English Translation. London: George Bell 
& Sons, 1875. 2 vols. 10 shillings. * 

— Einleitung. Edited by J. Wellhausen. Berlin: G. Reimer, 
1878. 104 marks. 

W.M. L. De Wette, Einleitung. Edited by E. Schrader. Berlin: 
G. Reimer, 1869. 8 marks. 

J. W. Colenso, The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. London: 
Longmans, 1879. 5 vols. £2 10s. 

—— The same, Popular Edition. $2.40. 

—— The Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone. 1873. 12 shillings. 

M. Heilprin, Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews. New York: 
Appleton, 1879-80. 2 vols. $2.00. 

T. C. Murray, Origin of the Psalms. New York: Scribner, 1880. 
$1.50. * 

S. Davidson, Introduction. London: Williams & Norgate, 1862-63. 
3 vols. $4.20. 

I. Taylor, The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. N. Y. 1863. $1.50. * 

J. G. Palfrey, Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities. 
Boston. 1838-52. 4 vols. $15.00. Out of print. 


COMMENTARIES. 


Bunsen’s Bibel-Werk. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1858-70. About $20.00. 

Philippson’s Israelitische Bibel (Hebrew and German, with notes). 
Leipzig: Baumgirtner, 1838. About $25.00. 

Lange’s Commentary on the Old Testament. American Translation. 
New York: Scribner, 1869-80. 15 vols. $5.00 pervol. The yol- 
umes on Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocrypha 
may be especially commended. 

Edouard Reuss. La Bible. Paris: Fischbacher, 1874-81. 19 vols. 
170 francs. * 

The Annotated Paragraph Bible. London: Religious Tract Society, 
1867. The Notes are short and clear. American Reprint, about 
$7.00. * * 

The Bible Commentary (sometimes called The Speaker’s Commen- 
tary). New York: Scribner, 1871-75. 6 vols. $5.00 per vol. See 
especially the notes on Chronicles, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and 
the Minor Prophets. 


~ 


BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Xili 


Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch. Leipzig: S. Hirzel. About 
8 marks per vol. The various volumes are, from time to time, 
re-edited or rewritten. Among the best are those on Genesis, 
Exodus, Leviticus, Job (Dillmann), Psalms (Olshausen), Ezekiel 
(Smend), Minor Prophets (Steiner). * 

On Genesis. M. M. Kalisch. London: Longmans & Co. Hebrew 
and English. 1858. 18 shillings. Abridged edition, 12 shillings. 

On Exodus. The same. Hebrew and English. 1855. 15 shillings. 
Abridged edition, 12 shillings. 

On Leviticus. The same. Hebrew and English. 1867-72. 30 shil- 
lings. Abridged edition, 16 shillings. 

On the Prophets. H. Ewald. English Translation. London: Wil- 
liams & Norgate, 1875-81. 5vols. About $31.75. * 

—— G.R. Noyes. Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1874. 
2vols. $1.25 pervol. * 

On Isaiah. T. K. Cheyne. 2vols. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 
1880-82. 25shillings. * 

— Fr. Delitzsch. New York: Scribner. 2 vols. $3.00 per vol. 

On Ezekiel. Patrick Fairbairn. New York: Scribner. $5.00. 

On the Minor Prophets. E. Henderson. Andover: W. F. Draper, 
1868. $4.00. ; 

On Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. M. Pressel. Gotha: Schloes- 
mann, 1870. 7 marks. * 

On Zechariah. C. H. H. Wright (Bampton Lectures for 1878). New 
York: E. P. Dutton & Co. About $1.25. 

On the Psalms. J.J. S. Perowne. Andover: W. F. Draper, 1870. 
2 vols. $6.75. 

Fr. Delitzsch. English Translation. Edinburgh: T. and T. 

Clark, 1871. 3vols. $3.00 pervol. * 
— A.Tholuck. English Translation. Philadelphia: W. S. & Al- 
fred Martien, 1858. $2.25. : 

_— Charles Spurgeon. New York: Scribner. 4vols. $4.00 per 

vol. 

— H. Ewald. English Translation. London: Williams and Nor- 
gate, 1880-81. 2vols. $2.75 pervol. * 

— A.Barnes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876. 3vols. $1.50 
per vol. 

— and the Proverbs: G. R. Noyes. Boston: American Unitarian 
Association. $1.25. * 

On the Proverbs. F. Delitzsch. English Translation. Edinburgh: 
T. & T. Clark, 1874. 2vols. $3.00 pervol. * 





xiv BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 


On Job. Adalbert Merx. Jena: Dafft, 1871. 6 marks. 

— E. Renan. Paris: Lévy, 1865. 74 frances. 

— F. Delitzsch. 1869. 2 vols. $8.00 pervol. * 

—— A.Barnes. New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1867. 2 vols. About 
$1.75 per vol. 

— J.A. Froude, Short Studies. IL 

—— Ecclesiastes and the Canticles. G. R. Noyes. Boston Ameri- 
can Unitarian Association. $1.25. * 

On the Song of Songs. H. Graetz. Vienna: Braumiiller, 1871. 4 
marks. 

—— E. Renan. Paris: Lévy, 1860. 6 francs. 

— C.D. Ginsburg. London, 1867. 

On Ecclesiastes. E. Renan. Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1882. 5 francs. 

— C.D. Ginsburg. London, 1861. 

—— H.Graetz. Leipzig: Winter, 1871. 54 marks. 

The Apocrypha (with marginal notes and references). London: 
Eyre & Spottiswoode. $1.50. * * 

(without notes and references). London: Society for Promot- 
ing Christian Knowledge. 60 cents. 

The Holy Scriptures of the Old Covenant. Revised Translation, 
by C. Wellbeloved, G. V. Smith, J. S. Porter. London: 1859-62. 
8 vols. $6.75. 

_Variorum Bible. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1880. $4.60 to 
$9.25, according to style. * * 





HISTORY. 


C. K. J. Bunsen, God in History. English Translation. London: 
Longman, Green, & Co., 1868. 8 vols. 42 shillings. 

M. Duncker, History of Antiquity. English Translation. London: 
Bentley & Son, 1877-80. 4 vols. 21 shillings. * * 

G. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne. Paris: Hachette & Cie., 1875. 5 francs. 

L. Ménard, Hist. des Anciens Peuples de l’Orient. 1882. 4 francs. 

Heinrich Brugsch, History of Egypt. English Translation. London: 
John Murray, 1879. 2 vols. 30 shillings. 

G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. New 
edition. London: John Murray, 1878. 3 vols. About 40 shillings. 

G. Rawlinson, History of Egypt. New York: Dodd & Mead, 1881. 
2 vols. $6.00. To be read with caution, especially the chronology 
and account of religion. 

—— Ancient Monarchies. N. Y.: Dodd & Mead, 1881. 8 vols. $9.00. 


BOOKS OF REFERENCE. XV 


Records of the Past (odd vols., Assyrian, even vols., Egyptian texts). 
London: Bagster. Begun in 1878, published from time to time. 
Per vol., 3s. 6d. 

George Smith, Chaldean Genesis. Edited by A. H. Sayce. London: 
Low, 1881. 18 shillings. 

— Assyrian Canon. London: Bagster, 1875. 9 shillings. 

C. P. Tiele: Outlines of the History of Religion. Boston: Houghton, 
Mifflin, & Co. $2.50. 

—— Histoire Comparée des Anciennes Religions de Egypte et des 
Peuples Sémitiques. French Translation. Paris: G, Fischbacher, 
1882. 12 francs. The best book on the subject. 

—— Egyptian Religion. English Translation (English and Foreign 
Phil. Library). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1882. $1.75. x 

—— Assyrian Religion. English Translation. * 

Hibbert Lectures. P. Le Page Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt. 
London: Williams & Norgate, 1880. 10s. 6d. 

—— A. Kuenen. National Religions and Universal Religions. Lon- 
don, 1882. * 

A. Kuenen, Religion of Israel. English Translation. London: Wil- 
liams & Norgate, 1874. 3-vols. $9.00. 

J. Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels. Berlin: G. Reimer. Vol. L, 1883. 
6 marks. 

H. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden (from the earliest times till the present 
day). Leipzig: O. Liner. Coming out in parts, at 20 cents each. 

H. Ewald, History of Israel. English Translation. 5 vols. About 
$20.00. 

E. H. Palmer, History of the Jewish Nation. London, 1874, About 
$2.25. * 

A. Edersheim, Sketch of the Jewish Social Life in the Days of 
Christ. London: Religious Tract Society, 1876. $2.50. * 

Oort and Hooykaas, Bible for Learners. English Translation. Bos- 
ton: Roberts Brothers, 1878-81. 2 vols. (Old Test.) $4.00. * * 

J. Knappert, Religion of Israel. English Translation. Boston: Rob- 
erts Brothers, 1878. $1.00. * 

H. H. Milman, History of the Jews. New York: Widdleton. 3 
vols. $1.50 per vol. 

A. P. Stanley, Jewish Church. New York: Charles Scribner & 
Sons, 1870. 8vols. $2.50 per vol. * 

W. R. Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church. New York, 
D. Appleton & Co., 1881. $1.75. * 

—— Prophets of Israel. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1882. 
$1.75, * 


xvi BOOKS OF REFERENCE, 


J. H. Allen, Hebrew Men and Times. Boston: Roberts Brothers, — 
1879. $1.50. 

F. H. Hedge, Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition. Boston: Rob- 
erts Brothers, 1872. $1.50. j 

R. P. Smith, Prophecy a Preparation for Christ. London & New 
York: McMillan, 1871. $1.75. 

A. Kuenen, Prophets and Prophecy in Israel. English Translation. 
London: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1877. 21 shillings. 

B. Duhm, Theologie der Propheten. Bonn: Adolph Marcus, 1875. 
5 marks. 

F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament. Boston: 
Crosby, Nichols, & Co., 1853. About $3.50. 

J. First, Der Canon des Alten Testaments. Leipzig: Dorffling & 
Franke, 1868. 2.40 marks. 

S. Davidson, The Canon of the Bible. London: Henry S. King & 
Co., 1877. $2.50. * 

Humphrey Prideaux, Connection of the Old and New Testaments. 
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845. 2 vols. About $4.00. * * 

Flavius Josephus, Complete Works. Translated by Whiston. Vari- 
ous editions, from $1.00 to $6.00. * 

M. J. Raphall, Post-Biblical History of the Jews. Philadelphia: 
1855. 2vols. $3.00. Out of Print. 

J. M. Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums und Seiner Secten. Leipzig: 
Dorffling & Franke, 1857-59. About 20 marks. 

L. Wogue, Histoire dela Bible et de /Exégeése Biblique. Paris: Im | 
primerie Nationale, 1881. 12 francs. 

J. W. Etheridge, Introduction to Jewish Literature. London: Long- 
man, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1856. About $3.00. * 

J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Tribner 
& Co., 1875. 

F. D. Mocatta, The Jews of Spain and Portugal, and the Inquisition. 
London, 1877. About $3.00. 

A. Geiger, Judaism and its History. English Translation. New 
York: M. Thalmessing & Co. About $1.00. 

M. A. Weill, Le Judaisme, ses Dogmas et sa Mission. Paris: Li- 
brairie Israélite, 1866. 3 vols. 21 francs. 

Charles Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (translation of Tal- 
mud Tracts). Cambridge, England: University Press, 1877. 
About $3.00. * 

F. Huidekoper, Judaism at Rome, 3.c. 76-4.D 140. New York: 
James Miller. $2.25. * 


BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Xvli 


J. T. Sunderland, What is the Bible? New York: G. P. Putnam’s 
Sons, 1878. $1.00. 

S. R. Calthrop, The Old Testament. Unitarian Review, October, 1880. 

E. H. Hail, The Bible. Unitarian Review, October, 1880; also in 
Ninth Report of National Unitarian Conference, 1881. 

Institute Essays. Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1880. $1.25. 

J. W. Chadwick, The Bible of To-day. New York: G. P. Putnam’s 
Sons. $1.75. 

W. C. Gannett, A Chosen Nation; or, The Growth of the Hebrew 
Religion. Chicago: Western Unitarian Sunday-School Society. 
15 cents. Chart to accompany the same, 5 cents. 

R. P. Stebbins, A Study of the Pentateuch Boston: George H. 
Ellis, 1882. $1.25. 


GEOGRAPHY AND ARCH AZOLOGY. 


Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine. Boston: 
Crocker & Brewster, 1856-57. 3-vols. with maps, 1 vol. $10.00. 

A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine. New York: Widdleton. $2.50. 

Jahn’s Archeology. English Translation. N. Y. 1853. $2.00. * 

8. Clark, Bible Atlas, with index of Names. London: Society for 
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1868. $7.50. * * 

E. P. Barrows, Sacred Geography and Antiquities. New York: 
American Tract Society. $2.25. x * 

Collins’s Atlas of Scripture Gecgraphy. Glasgow: William Collins, 
Sons, & Co. 16 maps. 9 pence. 

James Fergusson, Temples of the Jews. London: John Murray, 1878. 

H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible. London. 1867. 
About $3.00. * 

J. G. Wood, Bible Animals. New York. 1870. $5.00. * 


> 





HISTORY 


OF 


THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 





INTRODUCTORY LESSON. 


BeroreE beginning our study of the history of the Israelitish 
religion, it may be well to take a general survey of the course 
of its development, in order to fix in our minds its main epochs 
and its salient facts. At the same time the general plan of the 
following lessons will thus be brought out. 


§ 1. THE DIVISIONS OF THE HISTORY. 


Divisions.— We give these lessons the title ‘‘ History of 
the Religion of Israel,’’ because there is little to study in Israel 
beside its religion (no art, science, philosophy, to speak of), and 

__ because we wish to trace its historical development. We make 
“five divisions: 1. The formative, extending from the earliest 
times to about the end of the ninth century B.c.; 2. The pro- 
phetic, from this point to the Exile, sixth century B.c., the Exile 
being a transition period; 3. The priestly, from the return to 
about the first century B.c.; 4. The scribal, extending from this 
point on to the eighteenth century of our era; 5. The modern, 
including the last hundred years. It will be understood that 
” these division-marks are to be taken in a general way; the dif- 
ferent periods overlap and melt into one another. 


—ae 


2 THE HISTORY OF THE 


1. Progress in the First Period. — During the first period 
things are in an unsettled condition. The wandering, half- 
civilized Israelitish tribes gradually draw closer together, come 
into permanent habitations, and are compacted into a firm 
kingly government (eleventh century B.c.), though they imme- 
diately afterwards split into two kingdoms, each of which goes 
its own way. At the same time the religion becomes more 
defined in its outward form and its inward meaning. The 
people cast away a number of their ancient deities, and practi- 
cally restrict themselves, so far as their own circle of divinities 
is concerned, to their national god, Yahwe. They were, however, 
at this time by no means monotheists. They regarded the gods 
of other nations as real beings, and they adopted the worships 
of their Canaanite neighbors. But Yahwe was the god of Israel 
alone, and they clung to him. Their ethical notions and prac- 
tices were rude, —there was much violence and cruelty; but more 
enlightened ideas gradually established themselves, till, towards 
the end of this first period, the social life was tolerably firm and 
kindly. Temples were built, and a regular priesthood and re- 
ligious service instituted. A beginning was made in litera- 
ture: short poems and sketches of history and tradition were 
written. 


2. Second Period. — The second period is perhaps the most 
remarkable in Jewish history. It was not outwardly successful, 
for during its progress the two Israelitish kingdoms were 
destroyed, and the people carried off, some to Assyria, some to 
Babylon. But the religion made a great stride forward. The 
prophets insisted that Yahwe alone, to the exclusion of all other 
gods, was to be worshipped by Israel; and at last they preached 
that there was no other god but Yahwe, and that he should be 
worshipped not only by Israel, but by all nations. This was 


‘true monotheism, and the Jews have taught it to us and to all 


the world. This is their contribution to the world’s stock of 


/ ideas. Some other details of religious life they may have 


worked ont, but this is their glory. 
In this second period, also, the Israelites began to regulate 
their temple-worship, define the duties and privileges of priests, 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 3 


and record their religious law in books (Deuteronomy, seventh 
century B.C.). 
Their ethical ‘conceptions grew in purity and definiteness. 
| They dwelt more and more on the nobler attributes of God, his 
holiness and justice, his faithfulness and love. It is from the 
prophets mainly that we learn this. 
3. Third Period.— The prophetic period was the fresh, 
\ creative youth of Israel. To this succeeds the time of reflection, 
when, the great principles of religion having been established 
and nothing more in that direction possible, there begins the 
desire to regulate the religious life by fixed precepts. Israel has 
sought the one God and found him, and now feels that its task 
is to maintain his service and secure his favor by following rules. 
This, then, is the legal period, which was controlled first by 
priests and then by scribes. The priests began to draw up ritual 
codes during the Exile (Ezekiel), and they continued this work 
till the present Law of the Pentateuch was completed (fifth cen- 
tury B.c.). The prophets after the Exile were few and weak. 
Israel had become the ‘‘ people of the book.’? They were pure 
theists, but they began to give the most of their thought to the 
ceremonies of religion. During this period their political life 
flashed out into splendor for one brief moment under the Mac- 
cabees (second century B.c.), and then sank forever. 


4, Fourth Period. Study of the Law and Tradition. — 
The scribes were the successors of the prophets and the priests, 
—of the former inasmuch as they were the expounders of prin- 
ciples of religion, and of the latter in so far as they were occu- 
pied with explaining the ritual law. We have seen what an 
important work the prophets accomplished. Priests also had 
existed, of course, from the beginning; there were always altars 
and sacrifices. The priestly period represents the natural devo- 
tion to the temple, as the visible centre and sign of religious 
life and of the presence of God, when the creative impulse of 
the prophets had died out. It might seem to us that God 
spoke more directly to Israel through the prophets; yet he led 
Israel no less surely by priests and scribes. The priests, during 
and after the Exile, were also scribes, that is, students and ex- 


4 THE HISTORY OF THE 


pounders of the law. And before the beginning of our era 
schools had been established for this legal study; at that time 
law and theology were one and the same. Priests and scribes 
stood side by side; the former conducted the public religious 
service, the latter explained its rules and principles. But after 
the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem by the Romans 
(a.D. 70) the priesthood vanished, — there was nothing more for 
it todo. From that time for seventeen hundred years the relig- 
ious thought of the Jews consisted in study of the law, written 
and traditional. The written law is contained in the Pentateuch. 
But many of its prescriptions required explanation, and this was 
given orally by the teachers (rabbis). These explanations soon 
formed a large mass‘6f traditions (they may be compared to our 
CommonLaw), and-after“a while were gathered up and com- 
mitted to writing (Talmud); the Jews then became the people 
of the Talmud. ~This~sttidy was not lacking in results. It 
sharpened the intellect and it produced a great legal code. But 
it spent most of its force on little things; it was like the scholas- 
tic philosophy in its tendency to quibble, but it had no such 
future as that philosophy. It was devoid of religious life. 

In the midst of this period Christ appeared and Christianity 
was established; but, though it sprang out of Judaism, which 
had prepared its way, it had no appreciable influence on Jewish 
thought. Israel remained separate in the world. Scattered 
over the face of the earth, the Jews entered into civil relations 
with Greeks and Romans, Persians, Mohammedans, and Chris- 
tians; but their religion remained about the same that Christ 
found it. 


5. Fifth Period. Reason in Religion. — Such was their 
position up to a hundred years ago. They were blind followers 
of authority; they would not believe that anything could be 
learned outside of the Scripture (the Old Testament) and the 


_— 


Talmud. But towards the close of the last century a body of 


' Jewish thinkers, imbued with the German philosophy of that 
period, asserted the right to use the reason in the determination 
' of religious belief and practice. They simplified the creed, 
reducing it to a confession of faith in God, and threw off the 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 5 


authority of the Talmud. They were followed by large numbers 
of Israelites in Europe and America, who constitute the body 
known as the Reform, while the Talmudists are called the Ortho- 
_dox. The Reform Jews, who are now in the majority, have 
distinguished themselves by scientific research. They have no 
creed, but represent all phases of religious belief. And in fact 
it is not the historical faith of Israel that they profess. They are 
merely Jews who have reached modern (Christian) ideas of re- 
ligion. It is the Orthodox, or Talmudists, who are the formal 
continuers of the religion of the old prophets and scribes, though 
the Reform has more of the old prophetic spirit. 


QUESTIONS. 


What is the title of this course of lessons? Why is it chosen? What 
are the divisions of the history ? 

1. In the first period, what progress was made in the organization of 
society ?— in religion? —in morals ? — in literature ? 

2. In the second period, what progress was made -in the conception of 
God ?— in the outward forms of religion ? — in ethical ideas ? 

8. What is the legal period? Why is Israel called ‘‘ the people of the 
book” ? What brilliant political record in this period ? — its date ? 

4. Of whom were the scribes the successors? When did the priests be- 
gin to study the Law? When did the priesthood vanish ? Who were the 
rabbis? Whatisthe Talmud? Were the Jews much affected by Christi- 
anity ? 

5. When did the Jews begin to be imbued with modern European philo- 
sophical and religious ideas ? What is the difference between the Orthodox 
and the Reform Jews? Is the Jewish Reform really a Jewish religious 
movement ? 


§ 2. THE LITERATURE. 


Tn the following lessons we shall speak of the literature along 
with the various periods of the history; but here we shall give 
a connected view of its development. 


1. Writings of the Ninth Century B.C. — The first Israel- 
itish writings that we can clearly trace appeared in the times of 
the early kings, probably about the ninth century B.c. Before 
that period poets had recited odes, and fathers had related to their 
children stories of the olden times and incidents of later years. 


6 THE HISTORY OF THE 


But now books began to be composed. There were. poetical 
compilations, such as “The Book of the Wars of Yahwe” 
(Num. xxi. 14) and ‘‘ The Book of Yashar’’ (Jashar, Josh. 
x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18); prose histories of the kings, and perhaps of 
the patriarchs, forming the basis of our present historical books; 
and perhaps, also, some simple collections of laws, like that in 
Exodus xxi.—xxili. These were all brief and occasional; there 
was nothing connected and extensive. 


2. Writings from the Eighth Century to the Sixth B.C. 
Prophets and Historians. Law Books and Proverbs. — 
From the eighth century B.c. on, the Israelites show great in- 
crease of literary skill. They were advancing in civilization. 
With greater quiet, stability, wealth, and leisure, there grew up 
a class of men who devoted themselves to study and writing. 
They began to have wider relations with surrounding nations. 
Their thought became more connected and far-reaching. The 
prophets pronounced and wrote their eloquent discourses. Poets 
began to compose hymns for religious worship. A comparatively 
large law book was written (Deuteronomy, about B.c. 622); and 
this, in accordance with the ideas of the time, which demanded the 
authority of ancient sages and law-givers, was ascribed to Moses. 
There were collections of the sayings of wise men (Proy. xxv. 1, 
about B.c. 710). And then came more regular works of history: 
during the Exile were written our books of Judges, Samuel, and 
Kings, and probably Ruth. Historical writing marks the rise of 
the reflective period in a nation’s history. But Israel’s histori- 
cal works were all religious; they were designed to exhibit God’s 
guidance of the people; they were sermons made up of selec- 
tions from history. There is no constructive art in them; they 
are merely collections of facts to point a religious moral. For 
this reason the Israelitish mode of writing history is called 
‘* pragmatic.’’ 


3. Legal Writings. The Canons of the Law and the 
Prophets. — Next naturally followed the legal literature. After 
various law books had been written they were all gathered up, 
sifted, and edited about the time of Ezra (B.c. 450) as one book. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 7 


This is substantially our present Law (Tora) or Pentateuch. 
It was then accepted as a sacred book. This was the beginning 
of the Jewish Canon, or collection of sacred books. After a 
while (perhaps about B.c. 400) the writings of the prophets and 
the earlier historical books (those composed during the Exile, 
and Joshua) were gathered into a second part of the Canon. 


4. The Writings of the Sages, and the later Historical 
Books. The Third Canon.— The ancient Israelites never pur- 
sued philosophy, in our sense of the word. But in this later 
period of their history they discussed questions of life and relig- 
ion, inquiring into the ways of God with man, and asking 
concerning the best principles of living. Of this species of 
literature we have the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of 
Solomon, and Wisdom of the Son of Sirach. To these we may 
add the book of Proverbs and some of the Psalms (such as 
xxxvii., xlix., Lxxiii.). Here we have the answers that wise men 
of Israel gave to the deeper problems of life. It isno longer proph- 
ets pouring out passionate appeals for God, or priests telling of 
sacrifices, but sages wrestling with doubts and fears. 

Other histories were written at this time: the object of Chron- 
ieles (fourth century B.c.) was to describe the history of Israel 
in its relation to the temple-service; and the books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah are continuations of this description. Then there 
were what may be .called historical romances, such as Jonah, 
Esther, Tobit, and Judith. There was also the Song of Songs, 
a poem in honor of pure wedded love. Finally, in the days of 
the Maccabees (second century B.c.) were produced the apoca- 
lyptic book of Daniel and the history of the Maccabean struggle. 
None of these latest books show the religious freshness of the 
prophets; only in the poetry of the Psalms (which continued to 
be composed down to the second century B.c.) we find smooth- 
ness of form and depth of national religious feeling. Israel had 
lost its creative power of thought. About a hundred years 
before the beginning of our era these were gathered into a third 
part of the sacred Canon. All of them were accepted as sacred 
by the Egyptian Jews, but some of them were for various reasons 
rejected by the Jews of Palestine; these last are ealled apocry- 
phal books (they may be found in some editions of the Bible). 


8 THE HISTORY OF THE 


5. The Rabbinical Writings. — A few other works were 
produced by the Jews during the second and first centuries be- 
fore Christ, such as Ezekiel’s tragedy on the Mosaic history, 
and the apocalyptic Sibylline Oracles and books of Enoch and 
the Jubilees. But the people now threw itself into the study 
of the legal traditions. In Alexandria the influence of Greek 
thought was felt to some extent (Philo, a.p. 50), but the body 
of the nation was little affected thereby. The Talmud occupied 
Israel for seventeen centuries. Learned men did little but write 
commentaries on the Bible or the tradition. Even what they 
did in the shape of grammars and dictionaries (which was, how- 
ever, valuable) was to assist the study of the Scripture. There was 
little new thought ; the most was cast in a Talmudical mould. 
They studied Aristotle and the Arabian writers, but it was for 
the sake of the Talmud. Here and there arose a great thinker 
who gave some impulse to his people’s life ; but as a whole the 
distinctively Jewish literature, from the beginning of our era to 
the present time, is hardly more than a continuation of the legal 
work of the six first centuries. The old national creative power 
was essentially religious, and the creative period seems to have 
passed. The modern Reform is active in literature, but it is 
not Jewish at all in any proper sense of that term. 

If we are to judge from present indications, the people of 
Israel, asa nation, have done their work in the world. But that 
work, contained in our Old Testament, is a great one. They 
have felt God’s presence, and spoken in his name to all human- 
ity. They have bequeathed to us an inestimable treasure. It is 
not merely from historical curiosity that we study their ancient 
writings, but also from reverent desire to know God. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What are the earliest Israelitish writings that we know of? What is 
their general character ? 

2. Why did the Israelites grow in literary power from the eighth century 
B.c. on? What sort of books were now composed? What advance in 
thought is marked by the rise of historical writing ? What is meant by the 
pragmatic way of writing history ? 

3. When did Ezra live, and what did he do? What is a sacred Canon ? 
When was the legal Canon formed ? — when the prophetical ? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 9 


4, What books were written by the sages or wise men? What was their 
object? What is the date and purpose of Chronicles? What books were 
written in the Maccabean period ? When was the third Canon formed? 
What is meant by apocryphal books? 

5. After the Maccabean period, into what study did the Jews throw 
themselves? Has this study produced anything new or of special religious 
importance ? 





LESSON I. 


THE BEGINNINGS OF HEBREW HISTORY. 


1. The Races of the Earth.—The nations of the earth, so 
far as we now know them, are divided into various races, which 
may be roughly named: American, Mongolian, Malay-Polyne- 
sian, Negro, and Caucasian. The Caucasian race embraces the 
Hamitic, Semitic, and Indo-European families. The ancient 
peoples who dwelt in the north of Africa, the Egyptians, Cush- 
ites, and Libyans, are Hamites; the Hebrews and their kinsfolk, 
such as the Assyrians, the Arameans or Syrians, the Phceni- 
cians, the Canaanites, and the Arabs, are the Semites ; and the 
Hindus, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Russians, 
the Germans, the English, the French, -the Irish, and other 
peoples of Western Europe are the Indo-Europeans. 


2. The Migrations of the Semites. — In historical times 
the Semites occupied Western Asia, from the Tigris-Euphrates 
valley (Mesopotamia) to the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. But in 
still earlier times a large part of them dwelt, along with other 
. nations, in Mesopotamia and the adjoining country, and here 
probably lived the ancestors of the Hebrews. In those days it 
was not unusual for tribes to leave their country and seek other 
_ abodes, where they could have more room and more easily find 
sustenance, just as people came, and still come, from Europe to 
settle in America, and as now many persons go to the west of 
this country to live. So, at a very early date, one Semitic tribe 


10 THE HISTORY OF THE 


travelled away, and settled on the shore of the Mediterranean 
Sea, and founded the cities of Sidon and Tyre ; these were the 
Pheenicians. Not far from the same time other Semitic tribes 
came into the same region, and took possession of the land of 
Canaan, expelling or destroying the people they found there. 
These new-comers were the tribes that are called Canaanites in 
the Old Testament; such as the Jebusites, the Amorites, the 
Hivites, and the Perizzites. They dwelt in Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and many other cities. Probably about the same time 
came the Philistines, who were somehow connected with the 
Canaanites; but it is uncertain from what region they entered 
Canaan. Who the older tribes who preceded the Canaanites 
in this land were, we do not know. Some time after the Ca- 
naanites had settled there, perhaps about the year B.C. 2000, 
came another migration, that of the tribes that we call Hebrews. 
Besides the Israelites, this group of tribes included the Edom- 
ites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and perhaps the Amalekites 
and some others. Probably these did not all come at the same 
time. It is likely that the Israelites themselves were made up 
of several different though closely related bodies of immigrants, 
who, in the course of centuries, were welded together into one 
nation; for a long time after they settled in Canaan, Judah 
and Ephraim held aloof from each other, and quarrels and wars 
often occurred between them, 


3. The Nomadic Life of the Hebrews in Canaan.— At 
first the Hebrews wandered about with their flocks and herds in 
the southern half of Canaan, and perhaps in the country east of 
the Jordan. Gradually the tribes settled down in various parts 
of the land, all except the Israelites, who, as we shall see, before 
they came to rest in permanent habitations, were to spend some 
time on the borders of Egypt. During this period of wander- 
ing or nomadic life they had no regular government. Each 
small tribe had its chief, and probably each subdivision of a 
tribe had its elders, who exercised a sort of control over its 
movements, and administered justice. The laws in use were no 
doubt such as we commonly find among the wandering tribes of 
the desert. For the most part each man had to look out for 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 11 


himself. If a man was killed, his next of kin had the right 
and was expected to kill the slayer. The penalty of theft was 
double or fourfold restitution. Property consisted wholly of 
flocks and herds. There were no books among them; whether 
they were acquainted with writing is doubtful. Purchases of 
goods were probably made frequently by barter, though it is not 
unlikely that they had money of uncoined silver which was 
estimated by weight. The best picture of their life is to be 
found in that of the wandering tribes of the Arabian desert 
to-day. 


4. The Earliest Form of the Religion of Israel in Ca- 
naan.—We should not expect that the religion of such half-civil- 
ized tribes would be very pure. God had great designs for these 
Israelites: in after years they were to become the teachers of the 
world in the knowledge of God; he was to lead them along a 
wonderful way. But their growth was to be slow. As it required 
many ages for our earth to reach a condition in which it should 
be habitable for man, so it required many centuries before the 
religion of Israel attained the form in which it could minister to 
man’s highest needs, and prepare the way for Jesus the Christ. 
Before reaching full age the people had to pass through child- 
hood; and it is of its childhood that we are now speaking, — we 
might say, of its infancy. At this stage of its life Israel differed 
hardly at all, at least in outward appearance, from its heathen 
neighbors. All these tribes had formerly worshipped stocks and 
stones, — dead things in which they believed gods dwelt. The 


Israelites had almost outgrown this, but still they had the cus- 


tom of setting up sacred stones, and worshipping under sacred 
trees, as the Druids in England used to do. Old habits cling 
long to nations, as they do to us all. However, the Israelites 
had, by this time, got to the worship of gods who were mostly 
connected with the visible heavens and the heavenly bodies. 
This was idolatry, but it was better than worshipping stones. 
The broad sky, the terrible thunder-storm, the sun, the moon, 
the stars, —all these suggested to them divinities who dwelt in 
and governed these objects. We know very little about the 
names and characters of these gods. ‘‘El’”’ was probably a gen- 


12 THE HISTORY OF THE 


eral name for divine persons. One deity seems to have been 
called Elyon, which means “high; another, Shaddai, the 
‘*mighty,’’ or the ‘‘ destroyer.” There was perhaps a Gad, the 
god of fortune; and an Asher, the god of prosperity. Perhaps; 
too, at this time, they worshipped Yahwe (Jehovah), who after- 
wards became their only God. 


5. Their Worship. — Like all other ancient’ nations they 
sacrificed to the gods, the offerings being animals (sheep, goats, 
bullocks, calves, pigeons), or wheat, oil, and wine. Priests, 
also, perhaps they had, though it is likely that every father 
of a family acted as priest in his own household. They had no 
temple, but built altars wherever they chose. Their worship 
was of the simplest kind, and they had no sacred books. 


6. Their Language.— Their language was that which we call 
Hebrew, the language in which the Old Testament was written. 
Tt belongs to the same family with the Assyrian, the Syriac, and 
the Arabic; and it is altogether different from Greek, Latin, 
German, French, and English. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the book 
of Genesis: “Early Old Testament Narratives,” by Pulsford, 
and ‘‘ Beginnings,’ by Gould. They are legendary accounts 
which grew up among the people, and were committed to writ- 
ing in later times. They represent later religious ideas, and 
embody many noble truths; but they contain only a small 
kernel of history. Vigouroux’s ‘‘ La Bible et les Découvertes 
Modernes,’’ 2 vols., Paris, 1877, opposes the conclusions of 
Kuenen, Lenormant, and others. 

2. On the various forms of religion, as fetishism, astrolatry, 
&e.: C. P. Tiele’s ‘Outlines of the History of Religions,”? Lon- 
don, 1877. 

3. On the earliest form of the Israelitish religion: Tiele’s 
‘* Histoire Comparée des Anciennes Religions de l’Egypte et des 
Peuples Sémitiques,’’ French translation, Paris, 1882. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 13 


4, On the connection between the Hebrews and Mesopotamia: 
Schrader’s ‘‘ Die Keil-inschriften und das Alte Testament,’’ 
Giessen, 1883; Lenormant’s ‘‘ Les Origines de |’Histoire,”’ &c., 
2 vols., Paris, 1880, 1882, and English translation of vol. i., N.Y., 
1882; George Smith’s ‘‘ Chaldean Genesis,’”’ edited by Sayce; 
and Duncker’s ‘‘ History of Antiquity,’’ English translation, 4 
vols., London, 1877. 

5. For later stories of the patriarchs: Baring-Gould’s ‘‘ Leg- 
ends of Old-Testament Characters,’? London and New York, 
1871; Weil’s ‘“‘ Biblical Legends of the Mussulmans,”’ English 
translation, New York, 1863. 


: QUESTIONS. 


1. Name the races of the earth. What are the three Caucasian families? 
What nations compose the Semitic family? 

2. Where did the Semites live in the earliest times? Why did they 
move westward ? Which of the Semites first came to Canaan? About what 

~time did the Israelites first enter Canaan? What nations were their nearest 
kinsfolk, that is, what nations besides the Israelites were included under the 
name Hebrews? Were the Israelites made up of several different bodies of 
immigrants? Did it require time to weld these together? 

3. What is a nomadic life? What sort of government did the Hebrews 
have at first? What laws? What sort of property? How did they buy 
and sell? Did they have books? What people now resemble them? 

4. Were the Israelites destined to accomplish a great work? Did the 
religion of Israel have to grow as a child grows to be a man? Did the 
people at first worship stocks and stones? Afterwards, what gods did they 
haye? In this early period did they worship Yahwe? 

5. Did the Israelites at first have temples? — priests? What sacrifices 
did they offer? 

6. What language did they speak? Is it like English? 





LESSON IL 
THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 


1. The Greatness of the Egyptians. — In those early times, 
namely, about B.c. 2000-1200, the Egyptians were the greatest 
nation of the world. They had already been a settled people, 
with a regular kingly government, for many centuries, perhaps 


14 THE HISTORY OF THE 


from as far back as about B.c. 4000; and now they had a flour- 
ishing civilization, and a remarkable and, in some respects, 
noble system of religion. They had conquered most of the tribes 
dwelling around them in Africa, and carried their arms into Asia, 
along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea and eastward up to 
the Euphrates; they had built pyramids, temples, and palaces; 
their wise men studied art and science, and wrote books, for the 
Egyptians had invented or developed a system of writing (the 
hieroglyphic) sufficient for the expression of all their ideas. 


2. The Fertility of Egypt. Dependence of the Desert 
Tribes on it.— Ancient Egypt was so fertile, thanks to the 
annual overflow of the Nile, that it was considered the granary 
of Western Asia, as it was, in later times, of Rome; it seemed 
to produce corn enough for all the world. In those days, how- 
ever, there was little commerce, and it often happened that in 
times of scarcity of provisions, a tribe, instead’ of sending ships 
or caravans, would leave its home and go where it could find 
food. So it was with the wandering tribes who dwelt just east 
of Egypt on the borders of the Arabian desert. Their-country 
was not very productive, they had only rude means of tilling 
the soil, and they were not infrequently exposed to the danger 
of famine. At such times they would move nearer to Egypt, 
where they could exchange their flocks and herds for wheat. 
The Egyptians, on their part, were not sorry to haye friendly 
tribes settled on their northeastern border, for these served as an 
out-post and a protection against the bedawin (desert-tribes) and 
other Asiatic peoples with whom Egypt was often at war. These 
visiting tribes became dependent allies of the Egyptians, with 
whom they naturally entered into more or less close relations; 
we find accounts in the Egyptian writings of bedawin chiefs 
who attained high position in the Egyptian government. ~ But 
it is probable that such tribes would give up their old habits 
and lose their distinctive character, in proportion as they became 
united with their more civilized neighbors. 


3. The Israelites in Goshen. — It seems that among others 
the Israelites were driven down into Egypt by famine. It is pos- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 15 


sible that this happened more than once; for, in Gen. xii. 10, 
it is said that Abraham went thither when there was a grievous 
famine in the land of Canaan. This, however, would be only 
a passing visit; at a later period the people went to stay. Of 
this we have an account in the book of Genesis (chapter 
xlyi.), and there is no reason to doubt its general correctness, 
though the migration may not have happened exactly as it 
is there narrated. Instead of a family (Jacob’s), moving into 
the land by invitation of the viceroy or chief officer (Joseph), 
we must rather think of them as a tribe wandering from place 
to place, and coming at last, as other tribes did, to the fertile 
region of Goshen, where they were allowed to settle by the 
Egyptian government. It may be that one of their number 
became a great officer under the king, and that this fact pro- 
longed their stay in Egypt. But, according to our present 
information, this must be looked on as uncertain. These 
stories in Genesis were committed to writing long after those 
times, when the memory of the events was not clear, and addi- 
tions had been made to the original facts, as so commonly 
happens in popular traditions. All that we need say is that, 
whether or not the beautiful and instructive story of Joseph is 
simple history, the Israelites did probably go to live in Goshen. 
We do not know certainly at what time they went, or how long 
they stayed, or what happened to them there, or how they came 
to go back to Canaan. The situation of the land of Goshen, 
where they are said to have lived, is also uncertain; but it was 
probably the border-land between Egypt and Canaan and Ara- 
bia, and large enough to furnish pasturage for the Israelites and 
for such other tribes as may have been dwelling there at the 
same time. This region was admirably suited for pastoral life, 
and we know from Egyptian accounts that it was occupied by 
pastoral tribes. 


4. How the Israelites lived in Goshen. — We may sup- 
pose that the mode of ‘existence of the Israelites in Goshen was 
not materially different from what it had been in Canaan. They 
fed their flocks and cultivated the ground, and occasionally, 
perhaps, made marauding expeditions into the neighboring 


16 THE HISTORY OF THE 


regions of Arabia and Canaan. They would probably inter- 
marry somewhat with the other pastoral tribes, and with the 
Egyptians. But they seem to have substantially preserved their 
own habits and_institutions...We-find—in 

almost no traces of borrowing from the Egyptians, which they 
would probably have done if they had lived in close social inter- 
course with them. It seems more likely, therefore, that they 
remained separate-from their neighbors, and _rétained the social 
laws and religious customs which they brought with-them-from 
Canaan,.as-has been. described i in Lesson I. In the next Lesson 
we shall speak more particularly of their religious history at this 
time, but here we must mention one custom which they possibly 
took from the Egyptians, that is, the institution of circumcision, 
which was afterwards to become so important a part of their 
religious life. This custom existed among the Egyptians 
(though to what extent we do not know), and also among other 
African peoples, while the Israelites seem to have been the only 
Canaanite people who practised it. It is found among the 
Arabs after the beginning of our era, but it is not known when 
they adopted it. We know of no Asiatic people from whom 
the Israelites could have got it, and so it seems likely that they 
took it from the Egyptians, perhaps during that first visit to 
Egypt which is hinted at in the story of Abraham (Gen. xii.). 
At any rate, the custom was already established among them 
when they departed from Egypt to return to Canaan, and suc- 
ceeding times regarded it as having been enjoined on the stem- 
father Abraham by God (El-Shaddai, Gen. xvii.). On some 
other things possibly borrowed from the Egyptians, see Lesson 
III. 4. 


5. The Israelites forced into Hard Labor by the 
Egyptians. — At first, as it would seem, the Egyptians left their 
pastoral neighbors to themselves. But after a while the Egyp- 
tian king, according to the Israelitish account (Ex. i.), 
determined to make use of them in certain great public works 
in which he was engaged, and accordingly pressed them into 
service to aid in the building of several cities. From the name 
of one of these: cities, Rameses (Ex. i. 11) it has been con- 





RELIGION OF ISRAEL. meee | 


jectured that the king who thus forced the Israelites into hard 


labor-was—Rameses IT. “of f the nineteenth dynasty, one of the 


most famous of the Egyptian princes. He was a great builder, 
and the general circumstances of his reign are not unfavorable 
to the supposition that his allies were forced to become his 
workmen. If this view is correct, we may put the beginning of 
_ the oppression | Somewhere near the year 1400 B.c., and we may 
suppose that it lasted sixty or eighty years, into the reign of 
Menephtah, the son and successor of Rameses. It was during 
this period that, according to the account in Exodus (chapter ii.), 
Moses, the future deliverer of his people, was born. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the history and manners and customs of Egypt: 
Brugsch’s ‘‘ History of Egypt,’’ English translation, London, 
1879, gives numerous extracts from the Egyptian inscriptions; 
Duncker’s ‘‘ History of Antiquity” is a convenient and generally 
sound work; Rawlinson’s “ History of Egypt,” 2 vols., London 
and New York, 1881, is well arranged and clear, but not always 
reliable; Wilkinson’s ‘‘ Ancient Egyptians,’? London, 1878, 
gives full details of manners and customs. Other books are 
Chevallier and Lenormant’s ‘‘ Ancient History of the East,’’ 2 
vols.; Maspero’s “ Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l Orient,”’ 
Eels, 1875. 

2. On the Egyptian religion: the works of “Wilkinson, 
Duncker, and Rawlinson above mentioned (Rawlinson’s expla- 
nations are generally unsatisfactory); Le Page Renouf, Hibbert 

Lectures, 1879, ‘‘The Religion of Ancient Egypt;” Tiele’s 
+‘ Histoire Comparée’’ (mentioned in Lesson I.), and his 
‘‘ Egyptian Religion,’’ 1882 (in the English and Foreign Philo- 
sophical Library). 

3. On the Egyptian language and literature: ‘‘ Hieroglyphic 
Grammar”’ in vol. y. of Bunsen’s ‘‘Egypt’s Place in Univer- 
sal History,”” English translation, London, 1867; Brugsch’s 
“Grammaire Hiéroglyphique,”’ Leipzig, 1872, and Woerterbuch, 
Leipzig, 1867-1881; Renouf’s “Elementary Grammar,”’ London, 
1875; ‘‘ Funereal Ritual,” in Bunsen,gvol. vy. above mentioned; 

2 


18 THE HISTORY OF THE 


“‘ Records of the Past,’’ vols. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, London, 1874-1881, 
translations of Egyptian texts. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. At what time were the Egyptians the greatest nation of the world ? 
What territory had they conquered and overrun? What had they built? 
—and written? 

2. Why did the bedawin go to Egypt for food? If they settled on the 
border, what was their relation to the Egyptians? Would they learn somie- 
thing of Egyptian civilization? 

3. Did the Israelites go to live near Egypt? Do we know exactly when 
and how they went? —or exactly where Goshen was? Do you know the 
story of Joseph? Are we sure that it is exact history? When were these 
traditions committed to writing? Was the country on the border suited to 
a pastoral life ? 

4. What were the occupations of the Israelites in Goshen? Did they 
intermarry with their neighbors? Did they borrow any customs from the 
Egyptians? 

5. Did the Egyptians at first interfere with the Israelites in Goshen? 
Why did they afterwards force them to work? What labor were they made 
to perform? Do we know how long this oppression lasted ? 





LESSON IIL. 


THE EXODUS AND MOSES. 


1. Bible Account of Moses and the Exodus. — We may 
probably look on it as an historical fact that the Israelitish tribes 
at a certain time (perhaps. abont_B.c.1330)left the frontiers of 
Egypt, and made their way towards Canaan; but we know little 
of the particulars of the movement. The story in Exodus 
(chapters ii. — xiv.) tells us of the event as pious Israelites long 
afterwards thought of it, but we cannot be sure that their recol- 
lection was correct. Many of the particulars given in the nar- 
rative are improbable. God did indeed lead them out, though 
not in the way there described. According to the Israelitish 
account, Moses, hidden while an infant by his parents to save 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 19 


him from the king’s cruel command that all Hebrew male chil- 
dren should be put to death;-was found and adopted by the 
king’s daughter, brought up in the court, and, it was afterwards 
added, educated in all Egyptian learning (Acts vil. 22). But, 
when he was forty years old, having killed an Egyptian officer 
who was maltreating a Hebrew, he had to fiy for his life. He 
took refuge in Midian, on the east of Egypt, where he married 
the daughter of the priest Jethro, and remained forty years 
engaged in tending his father-in-law’s flocks. At the end of 
that time he was sent by God back to Egypt to bring his people 
out. Here, with his brother Aaron, he called down ten terrible 
plagues on the Egyptians, and so forced them to let the Israelites 
go. He led them forth, first to Mount Sinai in Arabia, where 
he received the Law from God (books of Exodus, Leviticus, and 
Numbers) and gave it to the people ; thence they wandered 
nearly forty years in the wilderness (book of Numbers) after 
which they approached Canaan on the east of the Jordan, 
Moses made a farewell address (book of Deuteronomy) and, just 
before the people crossed the river, ascended Mount Pisgah, and 
there died alone and was buried by God. 


2. The Exodus and the March to Canaan.— There are 
many reasons why we cannot think that this narrative gives a 
veritable history of the events; some of these reasons will 
appear in the course of our Lessons. Yet we must suppose that 
the Israelites somehow reached the land of Canaan, and con- 
quered it, and that Moses was really a great leader and instructor 
of his countrymen. It is not very important for us to know 
exactly what he did, and what the history of the Israelites was 
during their march to Canaan. This is the period of their 
childhood, and we shall be more interested in studying their 
later years. So for the present we may be satisfied with saying 
that the tribes probably led a nomadic life for some years, dur- 
ing which time Moses taught them as he had opportunity, 
organizing their civil and religious institutions, and preparing 
them for their succeeding life in Canaan. It is hard to say how 
long they wandered about before entering their new abode, — 
it may have been two years, it may have been forty, — but it 


, 


20 THE HISTORY OF THE 


seems to have been long enough to mould them in some fashion 
into one people. It does not appear that they gained many new 
religious ideas during this time. But here we must say a word 
about Moses and his work. 


3. The Traditional Account of the Origin of the Law of 
Israel. — As our Old Testament is now arranged, Moses is rep- 
resented as having received from God and given to his people 
at Sinai nearly the whole of the religious law by which they were 
guided down to the time of the coming of Christ. This is con- 
tained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers; then 
in Deuteronomy we find certain additions which he is said to 
have given thirty-eight years later, on the eastern bank of the | 
Jordan. But we cannot take the account literally. The book 
of Kings and the writings of the prophets do not represent even 
the best of the people as acquainted with the Pentateuchal legis- 


lation down to the Exile. The law grew up gradually, and 
hundreds of years after Moses, when pious prophets and priests 
gathered together the 1 religious usages of their ‘times, they thought 


that if must all have been revealed in the be 
of Israel, and so they came to believe that their great deliverer 


from Egyptian bondage had received it all at once. But we shall 
see that the succeeding history does not bear this out. The be- 
ginning of Israel’s life was feeble; we shall try to follow it out 


to its grand ending. We commence with Moses. 


4. What the Early Prophets said of Moses. Whether 
he borrowed anything from the Egyptians. —In the days 
of the prophet Hosea, about 750 B.c., it was believed that God 
had delivered Israel from Egypt by the hand of one of his ser- 
vants: ‘‘ By a prophet,’’ says he, ‘‘ the Lord brought Israel out 
of Egypt” (Hos. xii. 13). Who this prophet was, he does not 
say, but we cannot doubt that he was thinking of Moses. The 
prophet Micah (about B.c. 710) represents God as saying: “I 
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee. 
out of the house of servants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, 
and Miriam” (Mic. vi. 4). The prophets, however, tell us 
almost nothing of Moses’ life, and the story in Exodus is largely 
the tradition of a later time. We know very little about his 
religious faith and his teaching. It is uncertain how far he was 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 21 


acquainted with the religious ideas of the Egyptians. It has 
been supposed that certain parts of the Israelitish worship were 
borrowed from Egypt, as the ark, the dress and observances of 
the priests, and the Urim and Thummim which-were worn ‘on 
the high-priest’s breast. This is possible, but we cannot say 
that Moses introduced them; they may-have-been adopted while 
the people were in Egypt. We cannot point to any ethical or 
religious teaching which probably came to the Israelites from 
the Egyptians. It is remarkable, forexamplé, that the two— 
peoplés differed so much in their ideas of the future life. The 
Egyptians believed that after death men lived as real a life as 
on earth. They said that there were judges in the lower world, 
that every man was rewarded or punished according to his deeds 
in this world, —the wicked suffered terrible tortures ; the good, 
having been tried and purified, their souls reunited to their 
bodies, dwelt forever in the presence of God, in the enjoyment 
of unspeakable happiness. The Israelites, down to the time of 
the Exile (s.c. 585), thought of the underworld as a cold, cheer- 
less place, where the dead wandered about, inactive, without 
pleasure or hope. They seem to have learned nothing from 
the Egyptians in this respect. Their belief was the same as 
that of the Babylonians and Assyrians in the old home in 
Mesopotamia. 


5. Israelitish Customs before Moses.— Moses found the 
people in possession of certain civil and religious ideas and 
customs. Besides their simple government and their sacrifices 
(see Lesson I.) they had probably festival-days, especially in the 
beginning of spring (vernal equinox), midsummer, and in the 
fall (autumnal equinox) ; these afterwards became the Pesach 
(Passover), the feast of weeks (Pentecost), and the feast ot 
booths or Tabernacles, and they correspond in season to the 
Christian festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Michaelmas. 
In early times, as far as we know, the Hebrews had no mid- 
_ winter (winter solstice) festival, corresponding to our Christmas. 
The Israelites also had a sabbath, a seventh day of rest from _ 
work, devoted more or less to religious observances. This they 
had perhaps brought with them from Mesopotamia, where 


22 THE HISTORY OF THE 


something like it seems to have been a custom of the old 
Sumerian-Accadians. Then there were festivals at the begin- 
ning of the month (new moon), and perhaps others. These and 
similar customs Moses would no doubt try to bring under the 
influence of a purer religious feeling. Whether he added new 
ones, we cannot tell. Of his higher religious work we will speak 
in the next Lesson. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the life and works of Moses: Kuenen’s “ Religion of 
Israel,’’ English translation, 3 vols., London, 1874 ; ‘‘ The Bible 
for Learners,”’ by Oort and Hooykaas, English translation, Old 
Testament, 2 vols., Boston, 1878; Knappert’s ‘* Religion of 
Israel’ (an abridged statement of the views of Kuenen and others 
of the latest school of Old Testament criticism), English trans- 
lation, London, 1877; Stanley’s ‘‘History of the Jewish 
Church,’? Old Testament, 2 vols., New York, 1870; ‘Tiele’s 
‘¢ Histoire des Anciennes Religions,’’ &c. 

2. On Egyptian and other accounts of the Exodus of the 
Israelites : the histories of Brugsch, Duncker, and Rawlinson, 
above mentioned. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. Can you give the biblical history of Moses ? Is it reasonably certain 
that the Israelites at some time left the frontiers of Egypt? What date is 
suggested for their departure ? 

2. Who led the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan ? Can we suppose that 
all the stories about him in the Pentateuch (that is, the five books at the 
beginning of the Old Testament) are real history ? If they are not, may 
they nevertheless be instructive ? How did the Israelites live on the march 
to Canaan? Did Moses instruct them during this time ? 

3. What books of the Old Testament contain what is called the “ Law of 
Moses’’ ? When did the Israelites suppose that this was given? Was the 
law made all at once, or gradually? Was it natural that people should 
think in later times that God gave all the religious law to Moses? 

4. What did Hosea say of Moses? What did Micah say? How long 
was this after Moses’ time? What things may the Israelites possibly have 
got from the Egyptians ? Did they get any ideas of the future life? What 
was the Egyptian idea of the life hereafter? What was the ancient Israel- 
itish idea? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. ke Be 


5. What civil government did the Israelites have before the time of 
Moses? What sacrifices? What festivals? Did they have a seventh day 
of rest (sabbath) ? Did Moses establish any new civil or religious obser- 
vances ? 





LESSON IV. 


4 MOSES AND YAHWE (JEHOVAH). 


1. Yahwe, the God of Israel. His Original Character.— 
Though, down to the _Babylonian_Exile (8.c. 585-535), the 
Israelites in Canaan worshipped various deities, yet we know 
that, all this time. their real national god was Yahwe (Jehovah), 
and that after the Exile they” gave up all others and_served-only 
him. At first Yahwe was only one deity among many. But, 
as is so often the case with things that go very far back in time, 
we do not know whence the name came and what it originally 
signified. It is almost certain that the right pronunciation is 
Yahwe and not Jehovah, and so we may call it when we are 
speaking of the deity that the Israelites claimed as their own, 
as the Moabites claimed Kemosh (Chemosh), and the Philistines, 
Dagon ; when we mean the one God, the Creator and Father of 
all, as Israel afterwards learned to know him, we may call him 
The Lord, as the name is rendered in our English version. We 
must wait awhile before we can speak certainly of the origin 
and meaning of the name Yahwe. As far as our present infor- 
mation goes, it seems likely that it came from Mesopotamia and 
belonged to some deity worshipped there, though it never got 
wide currency except in Canaan. From various expressions in 


the Old Testament we may infer that Yahwe was originally a- 


od of the-sky, especially of the thunder-storm. —This suits the 
fine description in Ps. xviii. 6-15 (2 Sam. xxii. 7-16) and many 
other passages, and the common Old Testament name, ‘‘ The 
Lord of Hosts,” that is, Yahwe, the ruler of the hosts of stars. 
In process of time this origin of the deity was forgotten, moral 


24 THE HISTORY OF THE 


qualities were associated with him, his worship was purified, 
and he became the just and holy God, such as we see him in 
Amos and the other prophets; and finally he became the only 


God. 


2. Whether Moses introduced the W i ahwe. 
Whether he was a Monotheist.— In Ex. vi. 2, 3,.some_ 
later Israelitish writer represents God as saying “to Moses: «1 
am Yahwe. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the ~ 
name of El-Shaddai, but I was not known to them-by myname ~ 
Yahwe.” It appears from_this that some Israelites in after 
times supposed that the worship of Yahwe did not exist among 
them before the time of Moses. As has just been said, it is 
more probable that.this worship-was_very ancient. Nations do_ 
not easily change their gods; it is not likely that Moses could or 
would introduce a new.deity... But, as the Israelites believed 
that he had made some great change, it may be that-threugh 


his means the worship of Yahwe became more general, became, 


in fact, in a real sense, the national worship. This would not 


\ necessarily mean that no other ‘deities were worshipped. Indeed, _ 


\ 


we find in the succeeding history that this was not the case. 
Not only did the Israelites adopt, in part, the religious rites of. iets 
the Canaanites (as Baal-worship and _calf-worship), but for a 
long time they had household gods (teraphim), as we 

histories of Micah (Judges xvii.) and David (Sam. xix xix. 13), 
and in the writings of the prophets (Hos. iii. 4). 1). Still less 
would it mean that there was only one God, that is, that all 
other pretended gods were nothing. This is what we believe, 
and what the later Israelites (about the time of the Exile and 
on) believed; but David and generations after him thought that 
Kemosh ana Dagon and the rest were real—gods;—only not 
gods of ~israel—Exactly what Moses’ belief was, we do not 
know. Probably, it may be said, he thought, as people in his 
day generally did, that there were a _great_many gods, that each 
nation had its own deity or deities. But he wished Israel to 
worship only Yahwe. And, in point of fact, they did remain 
in general faithful to Yahwe, till at last they abandoned all 


others. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 95 


3. Is the Decalogue Monotheistic ?— But does not the- 


Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) require monotheism, the 


worship of one God? As to this, we must observe two things: 





(Ex. xx. 23); sécondly, we cannot be sure that it _was~ 
MORE WES Niobe down Hecke Uammandmenta, as we now find 
them in the Old Testament. Indeed, it is almost certain that 
he did not write them; for there are two versions of them, 
one in Bx_xx, 2-17, the other in Deut. v. 6-18; and_these 


differ so much the one from the other (namely, in the ground 
‘given for the observance of the Sabbath), that Moses-eould 
hardly haye written_both. So it is more likely that they were 
“written down after Moses’ time. If he wrote any command- 


ments the record has been lost». 


4. Moses’ Work Uncertain. —If we cannot suppose that 
the Pentateuch (the ‘‘ five books of Moses’’) is correct history, 
then we do not know precisely what Moses did for his people. 
Did he try to make them more humane as well as more spiritual? 
It seems that in those days they were half barbarians; was Moses 
a reformer like the Athenian Solon? It is hard to say. In the 
times of the Judges, the Israelites seem sometimes to have offered 
human sacrifices to Yahwe; so Jephtha is said to have offered up 
his daughter (Judges xi. 30, 31, 34-40). But they may have 
learned this from the Canaanites; it is not certain that they 
practised it in Moses’ time, and we cannot tell whether he tried 
to abolish it. And as to gods, we do not know what other 
deities besides Yahwe the Israelites now worshipped (see Lesson © 
I.), nor their customs of sacrifice, nor their ethical ideas. We 
infer certain things from the Old Testament, but our knowledge 
is not accurate or sure. 


5. What Moses probably did.— From all that we do 
know, we are led to believe that what Moses did was rather to _ 
organize the people and ‘give them an impulse iw religion, than— 
to frame any code of laws or make-any great change in their_ 
institutions. In after years it became the fashion to think of 


26 THE HISTORY OF THE 


him as the author of almost all the religious customs of the land, 
as the divinely appointed lawgiver who received his instruction 
(Tora the Israelites called it) from the mouth of Yahwe him- 
self. But it is not very important for us to be able to say that 
Moses did just this and that. Under the guidance of God, Israel 
grew in wisdom, and worked out a great Tora, an instruction in 
righteousness; and it matters little to us whether it was Moses 
or somebody else who had the chief part in it. But it is prob- 
able that he was a great man, and did much for his people. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the work of Moses: the books of Kuenen and Stanley 
before mentioned, and the ‘‘ Bible for Learners; ” Tiele’s “* His- 
toire Comparée,” pp. 356 f. 

2. On the origin and meaning of the name Yahwe: the 
Hebrew lexicons; Friedrich Delitzsch’s ‘Wo lag das Paradies? ” 
Leipzig, 1881, pp. 160 ff.; Tiele’s ‘* Histoire Comparée,” &c., 
pp. 347-351; J. H. Allen’s “‘ Hebrew Men and Times.’ 


QUESTIONS. 


1. Did the Israelites worship many gods? Did they, however, have their 
own especial deity? What was his name? What does our English version 
usually call him? How did the Israelites originally think of him? How 
did they regard him in later times when they had better ideas of religion ? 

2. Did some later Israelites think that the worship of Yahwe did not 
exist among the people before the time of Moses? In what passage of 
Exodus is this said? Is it probable that this wasso ? What may we suppose 
Moses did in this respect ? Where do we read that the Israelites worshipped 
teraphim? Would it mean that they believed in one only God? Did Moses 
probably believe in one God just as we do? What did he wish? Did they 
do this? Would this mean that no other deities were worshipped ? 

3. What is the Decalogue? Where is it written? What does it say 
about worshipping Yahwe ? Does that mean that the Israelites believed in 
only one God? Did Moses write the Decalogue in its present form? What 
is the difference between its two forms in Deuteronomy and Exodus? Does 
it make any difference in the value of the Decalogue, whether Moses wrote 
it? [Certainly not.] 

4. What is the Pentateuch ? Have we any knowledge of Moses except 
from the Pentateuch? Is that certainly correct? Do we know exactly what 
Moses did for his people? Can you give the story of Jephthah’s daughter ? 


co 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 27 


Was that before or after Moses’ tinie? Do we know whether the Israelites 
offered human sacrifices in the time of Moses ? 

5. What should we say that Moses did? What did the people afterwards 
think of him? Does it matter very much whether God taught Israel by 
Moses or by some other man? 





LESSON V. 


THE CONQUEST AND THE JUDGES. 


1. The March from Goshen to Canaan.— After leaving 
Egypt the Israelites seem to have moved from place to place 
in the northern part of Arabia, where they spent some time 
before reaching Canaan. Their route is described in a general 
way in the books of Deuteronomy (i.-iii., and x. 6, 7), Exodus 
(xiv.—xix.), and Numbers (x.-xiv., xx.—xxii.) ; and there isa 
list of stations (an itinerary) in Num. xxxili. But these were 
written so long after the events occurred that we cannot rely on 
their correctness. Whether, on leaving Goshen, they crossed 
the upper part of the Red Sea, or skirted the Sirbonian lake, or 
went some other way, there is at present no means of determin- 
ing. There was in later times a firm belief among the Israelites 
that they had spent some time at Mount Sinai in the peninsula 
called by the Greeks and Romans Arabia Petra, and that 
there the Law was given by God through Moses. We know now 
that it was not there that God gave Israel its law ; but the 
people, or a part of them, may have stayed there awhile. Thence 
they marched northward towards the Dead Sea, and perhaps 
approached their new land in two divisions, one on the east, and 
one on the west of the sea. Of the first division, some (Reuben, 
Gad, and a part of Manasseh) settled in the pasture-land on the 
east of the Jordan ; and others (Ephraim, part of Manasseh, 
and other tribes) crossed the river and occupied the middle and 
northern parts of Canaan. The second division (Judah, Ben- 
jamin, and Simeon) came in at the south, and took possession 
of that region. We cannot say certainly that this was their 


28 THE HISTORY OF THR 


course, but there is some probability in this view. Having got 
a foothold in the land, they fought their way from place to place. 
They were often beaten by the various Canaanite tribes, but 
they grew stronger and stronger, and at last, after a considerable 
time, became masters of the greater part of the country. For- 
tunately for the Israelites, the Canaanites were not united 
among themselves, and so the invaders conquered them one by 
one. Besides, it seems probable that the people of the land had 
been weakened by the attacks of the Egyptians and the Hittites. 
(Compare the Saxon conquest of Britain.) 


2. The Book of Joshua. — The history of the conquest and 
division of Canaan by Israel is contained in the book of Joshua, 
the latter half of which has therefore been called the Israel- 
itish Domesday-Book (Stanley’s ‘‘ Jewish Church,’’ i. p. 289). 
The historical books of the Old Testament are generally made 
up of extracts from earlier writings, the whole being then re- 
vised by the author or editor. So it is with the book of Joshua. 
It seems to contain some old traditions (xxiy. 2) and some 
early lists of places (xii—xix.) ; but it was composed at about the — 
same time with the books of Exodus and Numbers, that is, after 
the Babylonian Exile. We find in it religious ideas which were 
probably not established in Israel till this late period. Such 
are the references to the priests (iii., iv.) and the Levites (xxi.) ; 
Josh. i. 6,7 is like Deut. iv. 6, 9, 40, v. 32, and Josh. i. 8 is 
like Ps. i. 2. So the book appears to be a late production based 
on some earlier traditions, and we cannot look on it as an 
accurate history of the conquest. The great general and con- 
queror Joshua is himself a shadowy character. He was probably 
an able military leader, though he did not make all the conquests 
ascribed to him in this book. For from the book itself and 
from Judges we learn that after his death much of the land 
remained to be possessed (Josh. xxiii. 4, Judg. i.). 


3. The Time of the Judges.— As soon as the Israelites 
had settled in their new possession, they began to cultivate the 
soil, build cities, and form a more regular government. They 
had their elders and tribe-princes as before, but there was no 


re we 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 29 


ruler over the whole nation. The tribes were separate and not 
always friendly to one another. Those dwelling on the east of 
the Jordan led a pastoral life, and had little to do with their 
_brethren on the west of the river. These latter were divided 
into two parts : the northern tribes followed the lead of Ephraim, 
and the southern the lead of Judah; and Judah and Ephraim 
were rivals. When any part of the country was attacked by 
enemies, the tribes of that region joined together for the time 
being for defence. They would choose a general to lead them 
against the enemy, and, after peace was restored, the general 
would become a judge or civil ruler over that part of the land ; 
but other parts of the country would not obey him. So it went 
on for a long time, till Saul was made king. 


4. The Book of Judges.— The history of this period, from 
the death of Joshua to the death of Samson and the rise of 
Samuel, is given us in the book of Judges. This book was 
probably written during the Babylonian Exile by a prophetic 
man, who gathered up the writings and traditions of his time, 
and then composed the history according to the ideas of the 
pious people of that day. When we come to examine it, we see 
that it naturally divides itself into four parts: 1. Some partic- 
ulars of the conquest (i., ii. 1-9) ; 2. A religious explanation of 
the successes and reverses of the nation (ii. 10-23) ; 3. A his- 
tory of various judges (iii.-xvi.) ; 4. Some special incidents of 
the period (xvii—xxi.). Much of this is no doubt valuable tradi- 
tion, though it is mixed with popular stories (legends) that are 
not real history. 


5. The Principal Judges. — Several of the narratives in the 
book are very interesting. Once, when the northern tribes had 
been conquered by a Canaanitish king named Jabin, they were 
delivered by the prophetess Deborah (whose name means ‘ bee ’’) 
and her general Barak (‘“lightning”’) (iv.). This victory is 
celebrated in a very fine war-ode (v.), which it is said Deborah 


_ composed (but that is doubtful) ; one is sorry, though not sur- 


prised, to see that the ode praises the Kenite woman Jael for 
killing the Canaanite general Sisera, who in his flight had asked 


30 THE BISTORY OF THE 


and received the hospitality of her tent. Then came 
Gideon (vi.—viii.) who defeated the Midianites, and restored his 
country’s independence. There was a popular movement to 
make him king, but it did not succeed. His son 
Abimelech (ix.) seems actually to have reigned a few years as 
king over a small territory near Shechem, his mother’s native 
place. It was her Canaanite kinsfolk and countrymen that 
supported him. He left no successor. Jephthah (xi., 
xii.) was a rude border-chieftain on the east of the Jordan, who 
crushed the Ammonites, and also chastised the haughty tribe of 
Ephraim. The story of Samson (xiii.—xvi.) is so full of 
legend that it is hard to extract history from it. Some writers 
suppose that it is all a sun-myth, like the story of Hercules. It 
is possible that it isa mixture of history, legend, and myth. 

At the end of the book we have two important narra- 
tives. The first (xvii., xviii.) is designed to give the origin of 
the idolatrous sanctuary at Dan in the north, whose priests, down 
to the Israelitish captivity (B.c. 720), were descendants of a 
grandson of Moses (xviii. 30, where for ‘‘Manasseh”’? read 
‘*Moses,’’ as the Hebrew text probably has it). The second 
(xix.—xxi.) describes the terrible punishment inflicted by the 
combined tribes on Benjamin for a crime committed by some of 
its people. ; 


6. Civil and Religious Character of this Period. — Dur- 
ing this period the Israelites were still in a half-civilized state. 
They had no settled government, and there was much lawless- 
ness and suffering. Their morals were such as might be expected 
in such a condition of things, —there were assassinations like 
those committed by Ehud (iii. 21) and Jael (iv. 21), debauchery 
like Samson’s (xvi.), and other abominations (xix.). The ideas 
of religion wererude. The people worshipped ephods and images 
(vill. 27, xvii. 5, xviii. 30) and the Canaanite gods (x. 6), 
though Yahwe remained the national deity (xi. 24). Anybody 
might act as priest (vi. 26, xvii. 5), though that was the special 
function of the Levites (xvii. 138), and priests of the line of 
Aaron are mentioned (xx. 28). There were various sacred 
places, where the people met for formal sacrifice. The ark is 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 31 


mentioned as being at Bethel (xx. 26,27). Human sacrifice 
was sometimes practised (xi. 834-40). There seems to have been 
little organization, civil or religious. It was a time of turmoil! 
and preparation, out of which we shall presently see order and 
prosperity arise. How long it lasted is uncertain (see Lesson 


VIL). 
LITERATURE. 


1. On the book of Judges: commentaries of Bertheau, 
Leipzig, 1845, and Lange, English translation, New York, 1872. 

2. On the religious history : the works of Kuenen, Wellhau- 
sen, Knappert, Allen, and others above mentioned, and article 
‘Israel’? in Encyclopedia Britannica. 


QUESTIONS.« 


1. On leaving Goshen, in what region did the Israelites move about for 
some time ? Can we tell their route with certainty ? Did they dwell for a 
while at Mount Sinai? Was the Law given there? In what direction 
would they march thence to Canaan? Did it take them a long time to 
conquer the land? What circumstances helped them to conquer it ? 

2. What book gives the history of the conquest of Canaan? When was 
this book probably composed ? Does it contain extracts from earlier writ- 
ings? Are its religious ideas mostly those of the earlier or of the later 
times ? Can you tell who Joshua was, and what he did? Do you suppose 
that he wrote anything in the book called by hisname? Why, then, is it so 
called ? 

3. When the Israelites had settled in Canaan, what did they do? How 
were they divided by the river Jordan? (See the map.) How were those 
west of the Jordan divided? Which were the two leading tribes ? Was there 
any ruler over the whole land? What was a judge? Was the country a unit? 

4. What book gives the history of this period? By whom was it writ- 
ten? When? Into what four parts is it divided? Can you point these 
out in the Bible? Is it all real history ? 

5. What is the story of Deborah and Barak? — the story of Gideon? — 
of Abimelech? —of Jephthah ? —of Samson? How many additional narra- 
tives at the end of the book? What is the object of the first ? —of the 
second ? 

6. During the period of the Judges what was the character of the civil 
government of the Israelites ? — of their morals? What did they worship? 
Who were priests ? Where did they sacrifice ? Where was theark? What 
was the ark? [A sacred box, containing something, we don’t know what. ] 


32 THE HISTORY OF THE 


LESSON VL 


SAMUEL AND SAUL. 


1. The Situation in the Time of Elii—The book of 
Judges carries the history to the death of Samson; in the book 
of Samuel we are introduced to a new scene, and the connection 
between the. two books is not stated. We find ourselves at 
Shiloh in Ephraim, where there is a sanctuary of Yahwe, of 
which Eli and his sons are the priests (1 Sam. i.). How long 
this place had been a centre of worship we do not know (Josh. 
xviii. 1 is of doubtful authority); it seems to have been resorted 
to only by the central tribes. At any rate, it is a sign that 
religion was becoming more orderly; all through the time of the 
Judges it had been quietly growing into shape. The ark was 
in the Shiloh sanctuary, which was not a tent but a house (1 Sam. 
iii. 8); people like Elkanah used to go up thither to sacrifice 
(1 Sam. i. 3); the priests lived in part from the offerings of 
worshippers (1 Sam. ii. 13-16); and the menial work of the 
sanctuary (which was afterwards done by the Levites) was per- 
formed by a sort of guild of women. The priest’ Eli 
(it appears that the rank of high-priest was not yet established) 
was also judge; perhaps he administered justice in one part of 
the country while Samson was fighting in another. The politi- 
cal condition was unfortunate. The Philistines had been for 
some time masters of the central districts of Israel (Judges xv. 
11). This people dwelt on the sea-coast west of Benjamin and 
Judah; they were brave and warlike and more civilized than the 
Israelites; their language was like the Hebrew, their worship 
(idolatry) was like that of the Canaanites, but we do not know 
exactly how they came into Canaan. 


2. Samuel's Life and Work.— Up to this time the history 
has been very dim, but now we shall begin to see more light. 
We have come to one of the great names of Israel, a man whom 
we can call a great teacher and reformer in religion. It is Sam- 
uel, of course, of whom we are speaking. He is said to have 

\ 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 33 


been born in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam. i. 
1), and to have been brought up by Eli at Shiloh (iii.). On Eli’s 
death he succeeded him as judge over central Israel. As a 
political ruler he seems to have been vigorous and efficient; he 
united the tribes to some extent, beat back the Philistines (vii. 
13), and finally aided in establishing a kingly government. 

His religious work was not less valuable. Not only 
was he a zealous adherent of Yahwe against the Canaanite 
worship, but he probably founded the order of prophets, who in 
later times were to be the chief instruments of Divine Provi- 
dence for purifying the religion of Israel. Ever since the con- 
quest the people had been constantly tempted to worship the 
gods of their Canaanite neighbors. These Canaanites were not 
perfectly subdued till the time of David and Solomon. They 
dwelt in the midst of the Hebrews, were their superiors in civil- 
ization, and their religious ceremonies were gay and attractive. 
What wonder that the poor Israelites often fell to worshipping 
the Baals along with their own god, Yahwe? But there was 
growing up in Israel a party who believed that the people would 
not be prosperous and happy unless they put aside all other 
deities and served Yahwe alone. Others thought that there 
was no harm in serving all these gods. And so there arose a 
conflict between the two parties. Now Samuel seems to have 
been the organizer of the Yahwe party; that is, he was so 
zealous for the God of Israel and so intolerant of all others that 
he became a leader, and those who thought like him would help 
him in his efforts to banish the worship of the Canaanite deities. 

To aid in this good cause he formed schools or 
communities of prophets. For a long time there had been seers 
or fortune-tellers among the Israelites. Samuel himself was a 
seer (1 Sam. ix. 9-11); people paid him for telling them where 
to find lost things. There were also men who felt themselves 
moved by a divine being to speak and declare his will; these 
were the prophets proper. The Hebrew prophet was not chiefly 
a foreteller of future events, but a declarer of the divine will. 
At first there was much superstition mixed with their utterances ; 
they used to excite themselves by music and pour out their 
words in a frenzy. After a while they came to speak more 

3 


7 
34 THE HISTORY OF THE 


calmly, and what they said had more moral teaching in it. In 
Samuel’s day there were companies of these prophets (1 Sam. 
x. 5), and he was their director (xix. 20). They may have ex- 
isted before his time, but he seems to have made them more 
effective, and to have laid the foundations of the prophetic life 
of Israel. We must not suppose that there were at this time 
any men like Amos and Isaiah. The “ prophets” that Saul 
met were probably little more than frenzied seers (xix. 24). 
But a beginning had been made. 


3. The Life of Saul.— For some time the people of Israel 
had felt that they needed a stronger government and more unity 
than then existed. When they were attacked they had nobody 
to gather all the warriors and oppose the enemy. One part of 
the country was beaten because the rest was inactive. We have 
seen (Lesson V.) that there had been an unsuccessful attempt 
to make Gideon king. Finally the need became so pressing 
that the people clamored for a change, the elders met together 
to consult (1 Sam. viii.), Samuel agreed to their demand, and, 
through his influence, a Benjaminite named Saul was chosen 
king. He proved, on the whole, a very good ruler. He seems 
to have united the greater part of the land under his sceptre. 
He was for a long time successful in his wars against the enemies 
of Israel, including the Philistines (xiv. 47, 48); though he fell 
in battle against them (xxxi.), they were so weakened by him 
that David easily conquered them. He seems to have been a 
bluff, frank-souled soldier, generous, impulsive, and self-willed. 
He was afflicted with a species of melancholy, a disease that 
darkened parts of his life; it is described in the narrative as 
possession by an evil spirit from Yahwe (1 Sam. xvi. 14). He 
was also a decided worshipper of Yahwe; we read nothing of 
his serving other gods. He was fiercely zealous against the idol- 
atrous wizards and necromancers (xxviii. 3). But after a while 
he quarrelled with Samuel, or rather, Samuel withdrew from 
him (xv. 35). Two causes of this disagreement are mentioned: 
Saul, as head of the nation, once offered a sacrifice himself 
instead of waiting for Samuel (xiii. 9-13); and he refused to 
destroy the king and the cattle of the Amalekites, as Samuel com- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 85 


manded (xv.). Thatis, Samuel, though no longer judge, wished 
to retain his former prominence and authority, and desired 
that Saul should be as ardent a follower of Yahwe as himself; 
Saul, on the other hand, was inclined to be independent. Sam- 
uel therefore withdrew and chose another king (David), who 
would better carry out his ideas. Saul seems to have been be- 
loved by his people, and, notwithstanding his unhappy death, 
added no little to his country’s prosperity. 


4. The Book of Samuel. — The history of Samuel and Saul 
is given in the first part of the book of Samuel, which is now 
printed as a separate book called First Samuel. Samuel was 
probably composed by a prophet during the Babylonian Exile 
from older writings and traditions. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the book of Samuel: commentaries of Thenius 
( ‘“‘ Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch ”’ ), Leipzig, 1864, and 
Lange, English translation, New York, 1877. 

2. On Israelitish prophecy: R. Payne Smith’s ‘ Prophecy 
a Preparation for Christ,” London and New York, 1871; Kue- 
nen’s ‘‘The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel,’ English 
translation, London, 1877; Ewald’s ‘‘The Prophets of the 
Old Testament,” English translation; W. Robertson Smith’s 
‘¢ Prophets of Israel,’? New York, 1882. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. How far does the book of Judges carry the history? Where do we 
find ourselves in the beginning of the book of Samuel? What religious 
worship was carried on at Shiloh? Who was priest there? Was he also 
judge? What was the political condition of the country? Who were the 
Philistines ? 

2. Who wasthe great man of this time ? Where was he born, and where 
brought up ? What did he do when Eli died? Was his religious work val- 
uable? Why were the Israelites drawn into the worship of the Canaanite 
gods? What did Samuel think of this? What was the Yahwe party? 

—Why did Samuel found communities of prophets? What was a prophet? 
What was aseer? Were the prophets at first moral teachers? What use 


386 THE HISTORY OF THE 


did they make of music ? What good work did they perform in later times ? 
In Samuel’s time were there any such great religious teachers as Amos and 
Tsaiah ? A” Fae 

3. Why did the Israelites wish for a stronger government? What is 
meant by a strong government? Who was chosen king? Of what tribe 
was he? Was he a good ruler? Was he successful against his enemies ? 
Was he a worshipper of Yahwe? What did he do to the wizards and 
witches? Why did Samuel withdraw from him? How did Saul die? Did 
he add to his country’s prosperity ? 

4. In what book do we find the history of Samuel and Saul? When was 
it written? Whence its name? 





LESSON VIL 


DAVID AND SOLOMON. 


1. Legends of Great Men.— We have now reached another 
great name in the history of Israel— Saul’s successor, Dayid. 
We shall find that, though he was truly a great man, the ac- 
counts of him that have reached us are exaggerated. So it is 
with the histories of Moses and Samuel, and so it commonly is 
with the lives of great men who lived far back. The people 
remember that these men did some remarkable thing, stories 
about them grow up from generation to generation, and in 
later times all things that are like what they did are ascribed 
to them. Moses was believed to have begun the Law, and then 
he was believed to be the author of all the laws. It was known 
that Samuel had something to do with the prophets and the 
king, and so it was supposed that he chose and established the 
first king, and was himself a prophet, like Isaiah. David was 
a successful warrior and a poet, and was afterwards represented 
as having composed half the Psalms of the Old Testament. 


2. David as King and Man.—David was born and 
reared in the town of Bethlehem, in the tribe of Judah. He 
was a shepherd and a warrior, and, while still a youth, distin- 
guished himself by his deeds of valor (for the story of Goliath, 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, BY 


see 1 Sam. xvii.). It seems that in some way he became 
the head of a party opposed to Saul, and he had to leaye the 
country and take refuge with the Philistine king of Gath 
(1 Sam. xxvii.). On the death of Saul he was declared king 
by the tribe of Judah (probably about s.c. 1040), and after 
some years of war established his authority over the whole 
land of Israel. He then began a series of brilliant campaigns, 
in which, with his famous general, Joab, he subdued the 
Philistines and other neighboring tribes (Edomites, Moabites, 
Ammonites) and extended his dominion to the Euphrates 
River. He conquered the Syrians, and became an ally of the 
Pheenicians (Tyre), but did not come into contact with the 
Egyptians and Assyrians, these nations being then elsewhere 
occupied. David was thus the founder of a mighty 
empire; in his day there was, perhaps, none mightier. He 
made Israel a united people and laid the foundations of its 
future history. His method of governing was like that of all 
monarchs of that time; kings were then accustomed to do as 
they pleased. He was tempted into committing wicked deeds, 
as many other kings have been. He was not above the cruel 
customs of his day (2 Sam. viii. 2, xii. 31). But he appears to 
have repented of his evil when it was brought home to his 
conscience (xii. 13), and to have been humble under affliction 
(xvi. 11, 12); though it must be admitted that his dying 
instructions to his son (1 Kings ii. 5-9) were not in the spirit of 
the New Testament. We must judge him according to the 
light he had. 


3. David as Religious Man and Poet.— David, like Saul, 
was a devoted worshipper of Yahwe; and, so far as we know, 
never worshipped any of the Canaanite deities. This does not 
mean that he thought there was only one God (monotheism). 
On the contrary, he seems to have believed that each nation had 
its own god, and that in every land one must worship the god of 
that land (1 Sam. xxvi. 19). But he preferred the god of his 
own country. When he became king and had conquered the 
citadel of Jerusalem (Zion), he brought the ark to his new 
capital, having made a tent (tabernacle) for it (2 Sam. vi.) 


38 THE HISTORY OF THE 


In those days the ark was believed to be the special dwelling-. 
place of Yahwe, and great reverence was paid it (1 Sam. iy.-vi.); 
it was a small box, but whence it came, and what it contained, 
we do not know. (For the contents of the ark in Solomon’s 
temple, see 1 Kings viii. 9; for later ideas as to what the earlier 
ark contained, see Heb. ix. 4, compared with Ex. xvi. 33, 
and Num. xvii. 10.) David intended to build a temple for 
Yahwe (2 Sam. vii.), but was so constantly engaged in war that 
he did not find time. The priests, offerings, and feasts, and 
other religious arrangements were about the same in his time 
as under Samuel and Saul. David was not only a great 
warrior, but also an excellent poet; he composed a beautiful 
and pathetic elegy on Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 19-27). 
Many of the Psalms are ascribed to him in the titles, but we 
cannot be sure that he was the author of any of them. In later 
times, when he was looked on as the great hero and warrior-poet, 
it was natural that he should be represented as the composer 
of the hymns of the temple-service. 


4. Solomon as King and Sage.—Solomon, Dayid’s son 
and successor, was the most magnificent of the Israelitish 
kings. The period of his reign may be put at about B.c. 1000- 
960. He inherited and maintained the empire of his father. 
He enriched himself and his people by foreign commerce, and 
adorned Jerusalem with splendid buildings. He entered into 
marriage alliances with many of the surrounding nations. 
But he alienated the northern tribes by heavy taxation, and 
prepared the way for the division of the kingdom (see Lesson 
VITI.). At the same time he was a patron of literature and 
philosophy. He attracted to his court the sages of Israel and - 
the neighboring peoples, and was himself a sage (1 Kings iy. 
30-34, x. 1-13). The wise men of those days spoke chiefly of 
matters of every-day life; they gave rules of conduct in the 
form of short, striking sayings (proverbs), drawing illustrations 
from trees, beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes (1 Kings iv. 33). 
Three books in the Old Testament are ascribed to Solomon: 
Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, but we cannot 
regard him as their author. The second and third were com- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 39 


posed long after his time, and so was much of the first; but it 
is not unlikely that he and the sages of his court uttered and 
arranged a good many of these proverbial sayings (called in 
Hebrew, mashal, ‘‘ similitude”’). 


5. Solomon’s Temple. — Solomon was not exclusively de- 
voted to the worship of Yahwe; he paid honor to other deities. 
His foreign wives had temples for their gods (1 Kings xi. 5-8), 
and he joined in their worship; and so, no doubt, did the pec: 
ple. But he was an Israelite, and fond of splendor, and he built 
a magnificent temple to Yahwe on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem 
(1 Kings vi., vii.) This was a very important event in the his- 
tory of the religion of Israel. Up to this time there had been 
no central place of worship, but now all the people would go to 
Jerusalem to worship in the great temple of their own Yahwe. 
From this time the outward part of the religion, the ritual, 
ceremonial side, began to grow; and we shall see that it did 
both good and harm. The priests of the Jerusalem temple 
began now to take precedence over other priests, and their 
power continued to increase till they became rulers of the nation 
(after the Exile). It is not said in the book of Kings that 
Solomon’s temple was built after the model of the tabernacle 
described in Exodus; and, in fact, it is doubtful whether this 
latter ever existed. 


6. The Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.—The life 
of David is given in the two books of Samuel and the two first 
chapters of First Kings, and that of Solomon in 1 Kings 
jii.xi.; and there is another account in Chronicles, 1 Chron. 
xi—xxix. being devoted to David, and 2 Chron. i.ix. to 
Solomon. The difference between the books of Kings and 
Chronicles is this: Kings (which is a continuation of Judges 
and Samuel) was written by a prophet during the Babylonian 
Exile; it gives the history of both the southern kingdom of 
Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel (see Lesson VIill.), 
and its object is to show that the nation’s prosperity was 
in proportion to its obedience to Yahwe; Chronicles was written 
by a priest ora Levite more than two hundred years later, it 


40 THE HISTORY OF THE 


gives the history of Judah only, and its object is to show that 
the nation’s prosperity was in proportion to its observance of 
the temple-service. Much that Chronicles says of the temple- 
service is not reliable. The life of David in Samuel contains 
some repetitions and obscurities, but is in the main trustworthy. 
The history of Solomon in Kings seems to be somewhat embel- 
lished. Such embellishments, however, are simply records of 
traditions; the historical books of the Old Testament (except, 
perhaps, Chronicles) are honest endeavors to set forth the facts 
of the history. 


7. The Chronology. — The chronology of the history of 
Israel begins to be firmer in the time of David and Solomon, 
though it is by no means sure. Before this time the numbers 
given in the Old Testament seem to be based on a tradition that 
cannot be depended on; so that we have, for example, to try 
to fix the date of the Exodus by the help of Egyptian history. 
But during the period of the kings, the numbers seem to be 
taken from written records, and if we can fix some one point, 
as the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, we can then reckon back 
to Solomon and David, having the aid of the Assyrian monu- 
ments. The date of the accession of Solomon, given above in 
the fourth paragraph, is approximately correct; perhaps within 
fifty years 


LITERATURE. 


1. On David and Solomon: the general histories of Israel 
mentioned in former Lessons; articles in ecyclopedias and dic- 
tionaries. For the legends, Baring-Gould and Weil. 

2. On Solomon’s temple: Fergusson’s “History of Architec- 
ture,’’ London, 1874, and his ‘‘ Temples of the Jews,’? London, 
1878; articles in Bible dictionaries. ” 3 

3. On the chronology of this period: George Smith’s ‘* As- 
syrian Canon,’’ London, 1875; Schrader’s “* Die Keil-inschiften 
und das Alte Testament,’’ Giessen, 1883; W. R. Smith’s 
“‘ Prophets of Israel,” sections iv. and v.; the commentaries on 
Kings and Chronicles; articles in dictionaries. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 41 


4. On the book of Kings: commentaries of Thenius (“ Kurz- 
gefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch’’) and Lange, English transla- 
tion, New York, 1872; articles in dictionaries. 

5. On the book of Chronicles: commentaries of Bertheau 
(‘‘Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch’’) and Lange, English 
translation, New York, 1876; articles in dictionaries. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. Are histories of great men of early times often exaggerated ? Why? 
Was it so in the case of Moses ?—of Samuel ? — of David ? 

2. Where was David born? What was his early history 2. When did he 
become king? What lands did he conquer? Did he make Israel a great 
nation? How did kings in those days govern? Was David better than the 

“people of his time? Does he seem to have lived according to the precepts 
of Jesus? How should we judge him ? 

8. Did David worship Yahwe alone ? Did he think that there were other 
gods? Why did he prefer Yahwe? What did he prepare for the ark ? 
Why did he not build a temple to Yahwe? Was he an excellent poet ? 
Can you mention one of his poems ? Is it religious at all? What religious 
poems are ascribed to him? Can we be sure that he composed any of 
these ? 

4. Who was David’s son and successor? How did he enrich the nation? 
How did he alienate the northern tribes ? How did he encourage learning ? 
Of what did the wise men or sages of that time chiefly speak ? What three 
books are ascribed to him? Did he write any one of them? What did he 
probably do as a sage ? 

5. Was Solomon a worshipper of Yahwe alone? Why did he build 
temples for foreign gods? What sort of temple did he build for Yahwe? 
Where? Why was this an important event in the history of the religion of 
Israel? What of the priests of the Jerusalem temple? Is it said in Kings 
that Solomon’s temple was built after the model of the tabernacle described 
in Exodus? ; 

6. What two accounts have we of the life of David? What two of 
the life of Solomon? When and for what purpose was the book of Kings 
written? When and for what purpose the book of Chronicles? Wherein is 
Chronicles valuable? Are the lives of David and Solomon in Samuel and 
Kings in the main trustworthy ? 

7. What is chronology? When does the chronology of Israelite history 
begin to be clearer and more certain? From what nations do we look for 
help in the chronology? Will it help if we can fix some one point? How 
near right is the date given for the accession of Solomon? 


42 : THE HISTORY OF THE 


LESSON VOL 
WORSHIP OF THE CALF AND OF BAAL. 


I. The Division of the Kingdom.— The united kingdom 
of Israel lasted only about one hundred years, under the three 
kings, Saul, David, and Solomon (about B.c. 1060-960). 

There had always been jealousies among the tribes, especially 
between Judah and Ephraim, even in David’s time (2 Sam. xix. 
41-43) ; they had never been thoroughly welded together into 
one nation. David and Solomon were of Judah, and Ephraim 
and the other northern tribes did not like their inferior position. 
The discontent was increased by the heavy burdens that Solo- 
mon laid on the people in order to carry on his great buildings 
and his splendid court. Moreover, he had incurred the enmity 
of the strict Yahwists by his permission of the worship of 
foreign gods ; and, in the latter part of his reign, one of this 
party, the prophet Ahijah, incited an officer of the king, the 
Ephraimite Jeroboam, to revolt ; Solomon detected the scheme 
before it was ripe, and Jeroboam had to fly into Egypt (1 Kings 
xi. 26-40). But on Solomon’s death, when his son Rehoboam 
went to Shechem to be crowned, Jeroboam came back, and the 
northern tribes sent him and others as a deputation to the new 
king to demand a diminution of the taxes. He refused to grant 
their request ; whereupon they withdrew, saying that they had 
nothing to do with the Judah-dynasty of David, and the Ten 
Tribes chose Jeroboam as their king. There were left to Reho- 
boam only Judah and a part of Benjamin, and the insignificant 
Simeon (1 Kings xii. 1-21, 2 Chron. x.). From this time till the 
fall of the northern kingdom (x.c. 720) our history falls into two 
parts; we shall study the parallel developments of Judah and 
Israel, the latter name signifying all the tribes except Judah, 
Benjamin, Simeon, and Levi. As there were twelve tribes be- 
sides Levi (Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, counting as 
two), and as Benjamin (in which was Bethel) belonged in part 
to the northern kingdom, the latter is called the Ten Tribes. 


2. The Dynasties of Jeroboam and Omri.— First, let us 
take a rapid view of the external history of the northern king- 
dom, from the accession of Jeroboam to the accession of Jehu, 


that is, about B.c. 960-842 (these dates are provisional). The 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 43 


throne of Israel was not stable ; kings and dynasties rapidly 
succeeded one another. After Jeroboam came his son Nadab, 
but he was soon conspired against and slain by Baasha, who 
reigned in his stead. So Baasha’s son was killed by conspira- 
tors, and civil war arose, and Omri was made king. He built 
a new capital, Samaria, and founded an important dynasty, of 
which the kings after him were his son, Ahab, and his grandsons, 
Ahaziah and Jehoram (or Jorain). There were at first wars 
between Israel and Judah, in which the former appears to have 
had the advantage, as, indeed, it was the larger country, with 
the more numerous population ;.but in Ahab’s time the two 
formed an alliance, the king of Judah’s son marrying the king 
of Israel’s daughter. More important were the wars 
between the Israelites and their northern neighbors, the Syrians. 
Since David defeated them these Syrians had been growing 
in power, and now became Israel’s most dangerous enemies, 
frequently overcoming its armies in battle, till they themselves 
were conquered by the Assyrians (B.c. 732). See 1 Kings xii.- 
xxii., 2 Kings i.-viii. 


3. Calf-worship and Baal-worship. — During this time 
many things of great interest happened in the religious life of 
Israel. The two most important of these were that Yahwe be- 
gan to be worshipped in the form of a calf, and the Canaanite 
deity Baal was adopted by the court and many of the people. 
The calf-worship was established by Jeroboam at Bethel and 
Dan. He knew that if the people continued to go to Jerusalem to 
the temple, they would be tempted to give up his government and 
obey the king of Judah. Therefore he made a separate form of 
religion for Israel. He put the great feast of booths (Taberna- 
cles) in the eighth month of the year (about our October) instead 
of the seventh, as it had before been. And he set up two golden 
calf-images to be worshipped ; they were intended to represent 
Yahwe (1 Kings xii. 26-32). The people had never ceased to 
worship imagés, and so they easily accepted these. Besides, 
there had long been a sanctuary of Yahwe at Dan (Judges xvii., 
Xvili.), and perhaps there was an image of a bull there ; it is 
likely that this was not an old Israelitish custom, but borrowed 


44 THE HISTORY OF THE 


from the Canaanites. Jeroboam allowed any of the people to be 
priests, not only the Levites, while in Judah the priestly office 
was coming to be confined to Levites. This calf-worship seems 
to have lasted till the fall of Samaria, B.c. 720 (Hos. viii. 5). 
It was Ahab who introduced the worship of Baal and 
Ashera (where the word ‘‘grove’’ occurs in our English ver- 
sion, we must understand ‘‘ an image or wooden pillar of the god- 
dess Ashera”’). His wife, Jezebel, was a Sidonian princess, and 
wished to have the gods of her own country, and her husband 
readily yielded to her desire. The people also had seen much 
of the Baal-worship among their Canaanite neighbors, and were 
not disinclined to it. It was only a small party who were in 
favor of serving Yahwe alone. So, as the king and queen and 
the great people protected Baalism, it prospered through the 
reigns of the Omri dynasty, and had temples and priests and 
| offerings and feasts. 


4. Elijah and Elisha.— But the party of Yahwe was not 
dead nor inactive. Though there seems to haye been at this 
time no opposition to the calf-worship (which was Yahwe wor- 
ship), there were many people who were displeased that foreign 
gods should be brought in and honored equally with their own 
national deity. Of course prophets were at the head of this 
party, and the principal leaders were the two famous men, Eli- 
jah and Elisha. These two were alike in their hatred of the 
foreign gods, but very different from each other in character and 
manner of work. Elijah was a stern man, who lived alone in 
the wilderness, only appearing now and then to denounce the 
idolatry or other wrong-doing of the king, and incite the people ~ 
to vengeance on the priests of Baal (1 Kings xviii., xxi.). Elisha 
had a house in Samaria (2 Kings vi. 32), was milder of nature, 
mingled with the people (2 Kings iv. 8), and sought to lead them 
to worship Yahwe by instruction (iv. 23): only one thing that 
seems cruel is reported of him (ii. 23, 24). Many stories are 
told in the book of Kings of their wonderful deeds ; the people 
naturally thought that Yahwe had given his prophets great 
power. And in fact they did at last succeed in crushing Baal- 
ism in Israel (see next Lesson). 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 45 


5. Political and Religious History of Judah. — During 
this time there was more quiet, though not more progress, in the 
southern kingdom, Judah. The family of David continued to 
occupy the throne. There were various wars, of course. When 
Tsrael first withdrew under Jeroboam, Rehoboam wished to 
attack them, but listened to advice and refrained (1 Kings xii. 
21). In his reign also the Egyptians came up and pillaged the 
temple of Yahwe and the royal palace (xiv. 25). After him 
came Abijam, Asa, and Jehoshaphat ; this last was the friend 
and ally of Ahab, king of Israel, and his son Jehoram married 
Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. The next king, 
Ahaziah, son of Jehoram and Athaliah, was slain by Jehu (see 
Lesson IX.). Under Jehoram Judah lost Edom, which had been 
its tributary. There is not much to say of the progress 
of religion in the southern kingdom during this period. The 
worship of Yahwe was maintained by the kings, the priests, and 
the people at Jerusalem. But the Canaanite gods were also 
worshipped, with their impure rites (1 Kings xiv. 22-24). Down 
to Jehoshaphat’s death the kings did not favor these foreign 
deities ; Asa even degraded his mother from her position (the 
queen-mother, that is, the mother of the king, was the first lady 
of the land) because she made an image of the goddess Ashera 
(1 Kings xv. 13.). But Jehoshaphat’s son and grandson, Jeho- 
ram and Ahaziah, the son-in-law and grandson of Ahab, wor- 
shipped Baal, probably through Athaliah’s influence. Though 
there were no such great prophets in Judah as Elijah and Elisha, 
we know, from after events, that there must have been a strong 
party devoted to Yahwe, and opposed to the Canaanite gods. 
And presently we shall see that this party was active and 
vigorous. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Elijah and Elisha: the commentaries and histories 
above mentioned; articles in cyclopedias and dictionaries. 
Mendelssohn’s oratorio, ‘‘ Elijah,” fairly represents the spirit of 
the prophet and his work. 

2. On the contemporaneous Syrian and Egyptian history and 
the chronology : the works of Duncker, Maspero, Rawlinson. 


46 THE HISTORY OF THE 


3. On the Phcenician history : Movers’s “‘ Die Phoenizier,” 
Berlin, 1841-56; Duncker. 

4. On the religion of Israel: the works of Kuenen and 
Tiele. 

5. On the Moabite Stone, the inscription on which throws 
light on the history of the Omri dynasty and the réligion of 
Moab, see ‘‘ Records of the Past,’ xi. 165. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. How long did the united kingdom of Israel last ? Under what three 
kings ? Had the tribes ever been completely welded into one nation ? How 
‘did Solomon increase the discontent of the northern tribes ? How did he 
offend the strict worshippers of Yahwe? What happened when Solomon 
died ? Who was the first king of the Ten Tribes ? 

2. What tribes did the kingdom of Israel embrace? Was the thrones a 
stable one ? How many of Jeroboam’s family reigned ? How many of 
Omri’s family ? Were the kingdoms of Israel and Judah at first friendly to 
each other? Which was the stronger ? In whose time did they form an 
alliance ? With what other nation did the Israelites have wars ? 

3. What two important events took place during this period ? Who 
established the calf-worship? Where? Why ? What deity did the calf 
represent ? Did the people accept this worship? Was it old Israelitish, or 
more probably Canaanitish? Who introduced the worship of Baal and 
Ashera ? Whence did he take it? Did the people readily adopt it? Did 
they also worship Yahwe ? 

4. Were there people who wished Yahwe alone to be worshipped? Did 
they suffer the calf-worship? To what did they object ? What two men 
were the leaders of the Yahwe party ? How did they differ from each other 
in character and work? Do you know any of the stories about them ? 
Did they succeed in destroying the worship of Baal in Israel ? 

5. After Israel withdrew under J eroboam, what family continued te 
reign in Jerusalem over Judah? Did they have wars? What nation pil- 
laged the temple and the palace? Who was Athaliah? Did Yahwe con- 
tinue to be worshipped in Jerusalem ? Were other gods worshipped ? What 


King deposed his mother for idolatry? Was there a Yahwe party in 
Judah ? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 4? 


LESSON IX. 


THE FALL OF THE BAAL-WORSHIP. 


1. The Contrast between the Worships of Israel and 
Canaan. — In the preceding Lessons we have spoken of a conflict 
between the Israelitish and the Canaanitish forms of religion; 
in fact, this conflict makes almost the whole of the religious 
history of the northern kingdom (that is, to B.c. 720, when it 
perished). These two religions differed not only in the names 
of their deities, but also in the character of their worships. It 
is doubtful whether Israel (the whole nation), when it entered 
Canaan, had any god but Yahwe; and his worship was mostly 
grave and severe, —it seems to have included human sacrifices 
at one time, but it had no gay and licentious features. The 
Canaanitish worship of *the Baals, the Ashtaroth, and the Ashe- 
ras did have such features; it was bright and joyous, and that 
was very well, but it was also sometimes debasing. And there- 
fore the prophets of Israel had a good reason, besides their 
attachment to their own national deity, for opposing it; we 

,. cannot help sympathizing with them if this. Looking back now 
we can see that their opposition to foreign worships was God’s 

way.¢ of bringing Israel.to.a purer idea of the divine nature, and 
r it is largely to Israel that we owe such better notions of religion 
| as we have. 


2. Elijah and Elisha determine to root out Baalism. — 
The prophets feared Baalism, and rightly. It was spreading 
over all the land; the people liked it because it was joyous, and 
thus they were led by it into sin. In Judah it was popular, but 
in Israel it was adopted by the kings and the nobles, and was on 
that account more dangerous. So the prophets Elijah and Elisha 
resolved to root it out. They believed that this could not be done 
so long as Ahab or any of his descendants sat on the throne, and 
therefore they determined to overthrow this family. For that 
purpose they selected one of the high officers of the army, named 


Jehu, whom they knew to be a strict worshipper of Yahwe, and 
advised him to revolt against the king (1 Kings xix. 16, 2 Kings 
ix. 1-3). The army, they knew, would obey the general, and the 
people were not friendly enough to Ahab’s family to support it. 


48 THE HISTORY OF THE 


3. Jehu’s Reform.— The plan was successful. Oneof Elisha’s 
prophets anointed Jehu king, the army followed him without a 
word, and the dynasty of Omri was destroyed (2 Kings ix., x.). 
Jehoram, Ahab’s second son, was at that time king of Israel; 
he was slain, and his mother, Jezebel, and all of Ahab’s family, 
and also Ahaziah, king of Judah. This happened about 
B.c. 842. Then Jehu set himself to crush out the Baal-worship. 
He called a great assembly of all the followers of Baal in the 
temple of the god at Samaria, excluded all worshippers of 
Yahwe, and slew the Baalites. The kingdom of Israel lasted 
about a hundred and twenty years after this, but Baalism 
never again raised its head. The calf-worship established by 
Jeroboam continued, — it was really a worship of Yahwe; but 
the Canaanite gods troubled Israel no more as they had done. 
Some remnant of their worship there was (Hos. ii. 8), but it 
grew feebler and feebler and at last died out completely. 

In his religious reform Jehu found an efficient ally in 
Jehonadab, the son of Rechab (2 Kings x. 15). These Rechab- 
ites were strongly devoted to the worship of Yahwe, and enemies 
of all Canaanitish customs. They even refused to live in cities, 
fearing the luxury of that sort of life; they dwelt in tents, did 
not cultivate the ground, tended cattle, and refrained from 
drinking wine. They were still in existence in the days of the 
prophet Jeremiah (Jer. xxxv.). No doubt there were many 
stanch servants of Yahwe who never bowed the knee to Baal 
(1 Kings xix. 18, xviii. 4). ; 

4. The Dynasty of Jehu.— The dynasty of Jehu lasted 
about a hundred years. The chronology is uncertain just here; 
we provisionally put the accession of Jehu B.c. 842 (it may 
have been from twenty to thirty years earlier), and the death 
of the last king of his family, Zachariah, B.c. 740. The mili- 
tary history of this dynasty was, on the whole, glorious. Under 
Jehu and his son, Jehoahaz, the Syrians gained important advan- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 49 


tages over Israel, conquering the territory east of the Jordan 
(2 Kings x. 32, 33, xili. 3). The next king, Joash, was a war- 
like prince and subdued Edom and Judah (xiv. 7-14). His son 
and successor, Jeroboam II., the greatest Israelitish conqueror 
since David, restored the prestige of his country; his kingdom 
extended from the Dead Sea on the south to Hamath on the 
north (xiv. 25), that is, almost to the Euphrates River, which 
was the boundary in David’s time. He seems to have overrun 
the Syrian territory. In his reign prophesied the prophets 
Amos, Hosea, and Jonah; but the Old Testament book of 
Jonah was written later. Jeroboam’s son, Zachariah (xv. 8-10) 
reigned only a few months; he was slain by conspirators, and 
with him ended the dynasty of Jehu. 

The most important political event of this period is the ap- 
pearance of the Assyrians on the scene. This people had been 
growing in power for several centuries, and, having conquered 
their immediate neighbors, had begun to move towards Syria 
and Canaan. They had descended as far as Hamath and 
defeated the Syrians; and it was probably in part because the 
latter were thus weakened that Jeroboam II. was able to subdue 
them (2-Kings xiii. 5). And Israel also felt the strong hand of 
the Assyrian. It is mentioned in an inscription of the Assyrian 
king Shalmaneser (B.c. 842) that he received tribute from Jehu. 
Whether Jehu’s descendants also paid tribute to Assyria we do 
not know. As yet the great northern power only hovered 
threateningly in the distance. The prophets saw the danger 
and warned Israel (Amos y. 27, Hos. ix. 3, x. 6, xi. 5); but 
the end was not far off. 


5. Political History of Judah.—In Judah during this 
period there was much disorder and suffering. King Ahaziah 
joined his uncle Jehoram, king of Israel, in an unsuccessful 
attack on the Syrians at Ramoth in Gilead; the two kings re- 
turned to Jezreel and were both slain by Jehu. Ahaziah’s 
mother, Athaliah, then seized the throne and put to death all 
the royal family except Joash, the son of Ahaziah, an infant 
a year old, who was concealed in the temple of Yahwe by his 
aunt, the wife of the priest Jehoiada. Having succeeded in 

4 


a 


BOF THE HISTORY OF THE TD te 


keeping him hidden six years, they made a plot, killed Athaliah, 
destroyed the temple of Baal, and placed the boy Joash on the 
throne (2 Kings xi.). For many years the fortune of war was 
against Judah. Joash had to buy off the Syrians with the gold 
and silver treasures of the royal palace and the temple of Yah- 
we (xii. 17,18). His son Amaziah was defeated and humbled 
by Joash, king of Israel (xiv. 8-14). According to the book of 
Chronicles, the next king, Azariah or Uzziah, was more success- 
ful, subduing the Philistines, Ammonites, and other neighboring 
nations (2 Chron. xxvi.); the book of Kings says nothing about 
this (2 Kings xv. 1-5). Uzziah was contemporary with the last 
of the Jehu dynasty in Israel. The Assyrians had not yet 
approached Judah. 


6, Religion in Judah. — We have seen that the worship of 
Baal was maintained in Jerusalem by the Kings Jehoram and 
Ahaziah and Queen Athaliah. It was destroyed by Jehoiada, 
and we hear nothing further of it till after the death of Jotham, 
theson of Uzziah. Yahwe was zealously worshipped; his temple 
at Jerusalem was repaired by Joash (2 Kings xii.). However, 
there were high places all over the land where the people sacri- 
ficed (xiv. 4, xv. 4, 35). This was not considered wrong at the 
time; it was the worship of Yahwe. Afterwards it came to be 
thought wrong to worship anywhere but at Jerusalem; and so 
the writer of the book of Kings, who lived at that later time, 
always blames the kings for allowing the high places to stand. 
And we can easily see that they would lead to the worship of 
other gods than Yahwe. So, for example, Beersheba in Judah 
was the seat of an idolatrous worship (Amos viii. 14). 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the political and religious history, see the books already 
mentioned. 

2. On Assyria: Rawlinson’s ‘‘ Ancient Monarchies,” New 
York, 1871, vol. ii., 99-121; Smith’s ‘‘ Assyrian Canon,’’ and 
the works of Schrader mentioned above. 

3. Racine’s ‘« Athalie ” will help somewhat in understanding 
the times, though it is much modernized. 


o 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 51 


QUESTIONS: 


1. What conflict forms the greater part of the history of the religion of 
Israel? What was the difference between the two religions? Were the 
prophets right in opposing Baalism? Why? 

2. What two prophets resolved to destroy the worship of Baal in Israel? 
In order to do this, what was necessary? Whom did they select as their 
instrument ? On what did they count ? 

3. Was the plan of the prophets successful? What two kings did Jehu 
kill? About what time didthis happen? What stratagem did Jehu employ 
in order toslay the followers of Baal? Did Baalism ever trouble Israel after 
this? What ally did Jehu find? What was the manner of life of the sons 
of Rechab ? Why did they fear city life ? 

4. Whatisadynasty? How long did the dynasty of Jehu last ? Was 
it in general politically prosperous? Who was the most powerful of its 
kings? How far did his territory extend? What prophets lived in his 
reign? What is the most important political event of this period ? Where 
did the Assyrians live? How far westward and southward had they come ? 
Had they weakened the Syrians? What king of Israel paid tribute to the 
Assyrians? Did the prophets see danger to Israel from Assyria ? 

5. During this period what was the condition of affairs in Judah? After 
the death of Ahaziah what woman seized the throne? Who wasshe? By 
whom was she slain? Were Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah successful in war ? 
Had the Assyrians yet approached Judah? 

6. Was the worship of Baal still maintained in Jerusalem ? Was Yahwe 
zealously worshipped ? Did the people all over the land sacrifice on high 
places? Why was this not thought wrong at the time? Why was it after- 
wards thought wrong? And, in fact, would it be likely to lead to idolatry? 
Can you mention one seat of idolatrous worship in Judah? Where is this 


mentioned ? 





~ LESSON X. 


THE PROPHETS AMOS AND HOSEA. 


1. Development of Israelitish Literature. — None of the 
books of the Old Testament, as we now have them, were com- 
posed earlier than the eighth century before Christ (B.c. 800- 
700). The Israelites were hardly civilized before the time of 


52 - HE HISTORY OF THE 1 


Samuel and David, and not ready to write books for acentury 


or two later. We find that nations usually begin their literary 
efforts with poetry, short songs commemorating festivals, battles, 
and other remarkable events. Then come annals, brief records 
of history and tradition. Next we shall probably find sayings 
and discourses of wise men (sages and prophets). Last of all 
we have law books, connected histories, long poems, and philo- 
sophical discussions. This was, in general, the course of the 
literary development of the Israelites, and in the Old Testament 
we have its final outcome. First there were short pieces like 
the well-song in Num. xxi. 17, 18, and then longer productions, 
as in Num. xxi. 27-30, Gen. iv. 23, 24, 2 Sam. i. 19-27, 
Judges v. When the kingdom was established, there were 
probably attached to the court officers whose duty it was to 
record current events (2 Sam. viii. 16,17). The priests and 
the prophets also would occupy themselves with collecting and 
writing out the traditions of the early times. It was about at 
this stage that the Israelites had arrived when J: eroboam II. was 
reigning in the northern kingdom and Uzziah in the southern. 
Many traditions had grown up about Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and the deliverance from Egypt. Perhaps at this time 
short histories of the patriarchs began to be written, and brief 
sketches of later times, together with lists of laws. These books 
have all perished, but their substance is contained in our present 
Pentateuch and historical books. 


2. The Different Sorts of Prophets and their Writ- 
ings. —It marks an important turning-point in the history 
of Israel when the prophets begin to record their discourses. 
There had been prophets since the days of Samuel, and they had 
spoken much. But what they said had been confined to some 
passing occurrence ; they rebuked kings for evil, or predicted 
disaster or blessing, or gave counsel in emergencies. The num- 
ber of prophets was very great. Obadiah once hid a hundred of 
them from Jezebel (1 Kings xviii. 4), and four hundred proph- 
esied at one time before Ahab (xxii. 6). They were not all in 
the service of Yahwe; Baal and Ashera had their prophets 
(xviii. 19). And the prophets of Yahwe were not all alike. 


: 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 53 


The predictions and discourses of some, as Zedekiah in 1 Kings 
xxii. 11, were the result of mere patriotic enthusiasm, or desire 
to please the king ; while others, like Micaiah in the same story, 
were controlled by moral considerations, and would never prom- 
ise Yahwe’s favor to any but those who did right. Almost all 
the prophets whose writings have been preserved belong to the 
latter class. At first no record was kept of prophetic 
discourses ; we haye no books from Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, 
Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah. This was partly because the 
Israelites were not accustomed to writing in those early days, 
and partly because the sayings of the prophets were short and 
disconnected, and related to single, passing occurrences. But 
after a while came a different state of things. Israel advanced 
in civilization and culture, and composition was more practised, 
At the same time the nation came into closer relations with 
foreign lands, Egypt, Syria, Assyria. Dangers threatened it 
from these great powers. Its future became complicated and 
doubtful. Good and wise men began to ask what would become 
of their people. Their God, Yahwe, was powerful — why, then, 
did their enemies conquer or harass them? So they began to 
see that God was not only mighty, but also holy and just ; if 
his people would prosper, they must be holy also. There arose 
men who felt themselves sent by God to deliver this message to 
the people, to tell them that they were suffering because they 
had forsaken the commandments of the holy Yahwe. They 
were the true prophets. Some of them delivered or composed 
_ long and vigorous discourses (sermons, we should call them), 
and these were written down and preserved. 


3. Amos.—The first of the writing prophets in order of 
time is Amos (we have nothing from Jonah, 2 Kings xiv. 25). 
According to the superscription of his book (Amos i.1), he was 
a native or resident of Tekoa in the south of Judah, where his 
business was to tend cattle ; he was not a menial, but the owner 
ofherds. There were in those days schools or communities where 
men were bred to the profession of prophet, by which some of 
them used to earn their living ; such men were often venal. 
Amos was not one of them. He had no professional education ; 


54 THE HISTORY OF THE 


the word of Yahwe came into his soul with such power that he 
must needs leave his herds, and go and preach to the people 
(Amos vii. 14, 15); so the Apostle Paul felt (1 Cor. ix. 16). 
His prophecies refer to both Israel and Judah ; but he seems to ~ 
have gone up to Samaria to live, and to have addressed himself 
chiefly to the northern kingdom. It was while Jeroboam II. 
was king (about B.c. 780). Israel was comparatively prosperous, 
and Judah was in adversity. In both kingdoms there was in- 
justice and other wickedness, and in neither was the pure wor- 
ship of Yahwe maintained; Israel worshipped him under the 
form of a calf at Bethel and Dan, and Judah practised idolatry 
at Beersheba and elsewhere. 

Amos’s words to Israel are stern. After denouncing punish- 
ment on Damascus, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, 
and Judah (i., ii.), he turns to Israel, describes its ingratitude, 
idolatry, and injustice (ii.-v.), and predicts captivity and other 
calamity (vi.-ix.). But at the end (ix. 11-15) he says that Judah 
shall be established in prosperity as in the days of old, and Israel 
shall be restored to its land, and dwell there forever. Yahwe, 
who reveals his secret to his servants the prophets (iii. 7), will 
do this. Yahwe, he says, is lord of all nations, not of Israel 
only. Amos’s style is vivid and bright. His prophecies (which 
were not all delivered at once) were probably collected after 
his death. 


4. Hosea. — Hosea, who was a younger contemporary of 
Amos (about B.c. 775-725), also addresses himself chiefly to 
the northern kingdom. We know nothing of his origin and life ; 
but we can see from his book that he was of a different nature 
from Amos. He pleads tenderly with his people to forsake their 
evil. His tone is one of loving sorrow. He sees that Israel 
must suffer punishment for its sin, but he grieves over the sad 
condition of things. He makes prominent Yahwe’s love for his 
people. He has many references to the old times; he speaks a 
great deal of the patriarch Jacob especially (xii.). With all his 
tenderness he can be sharply severe ; he does not try to excuse 
the people’s sin : ‘‘ Shall [ransom them from the hand of Sheol? 
shall I redeem them from death? Where are thy plagues, O 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 5d 


death ? where thy pestilence, O Sheol? repentance shall be hid 
from my eyes”? (xiii. 14). In his days Assyria began to threaten 
Israel, and he predicts that they shall be conquered and carried 
away captive by this people (ix. 3, xi. 5). He closes with a word 
of love and promise (xiv. 4-8). Some man, who edited his book, 
added at the end an exhortation to the reader (xiv. 9). 


5. The Influence of Amos and Hosea.— Thus these two 
prophets strove to hold their people to the worship of Yahwe 
alone. And more, they speak of Yahwe as a holy God, who will 
not endure wickedness. In this way they laid the foundations 
of pure monotheism. Perhaps they thought that the Baals and 
the other deities were real gods ; but Yahwe they believed stood 
above them all in ethical qualities, and after a while Israel came 
to see that they are not gods at all, but only names. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Israelitish prophecy : the books mentioned in Lesson 
VI. ; W. Robertson Smith’s ‘‘Old Testament in the Jewish 
Church,” New York, 1881 ; Fairbairn’s ‘‘ Prophecy.”’ 

2. On Amos and Hosea : the commentaries of Steiner, 1881 
(‘‘Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch ”’), Lange, and Pusey, 
and the ‘‘Speaker’s Commentary ;’’ Heilprin’s ‘‘ Historical 
Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews,’’ New York, 1879, 1880 ; 
Duhm’s ‘Theologie der Propheten,’”? Bonn, 1875; W. R. 
Smith’s “ Prophets of Israel.’ 

3. On the earliest writings : the Introductions of De Wette- 
Schrader, Berlin, 1869, and Bleek—Wellhausen, Berlin, 1878; 
Heilprin’s work above mentioned. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. When were the earliest of our Old Testament books composed ? How 
do nations usually begin their literary efforts? What comes after this 2? 
Was this the case with the Israelites ? What men wrote down the annals 
and traditions 2? Did the Israelites perhaps have brief historical and legal 
writings in the days of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah? Do any of these older 
books now exist ? 


56 THE HISTORY OF THE 





2. Did the earliest prophets speak much? On what occasions? Was 
the number of prophets great? Did other gods besides Yahwe have 
prophets? Were the prophets of Yahwe all alike? What was the difference 
between Zedekiah and Micaiah, for instance? Did the earlier prophets 
compose books ? Why not? What change came about in Israel’s literary 
culture and general condition? When Israel suffered, what did the true 
prophets say was the reason? Was it a great step forward when they be- 
gan to talk about the holiness of Yahwe ? 

3. Who is the earliest of the writing prophets ? Where was he born, 
and what was his business ? Was he a professional prophet? Why did he 
preach? Where did he prophesy? Under what king? What was the 
condition of Israel at this time ?—the condition of Judah? What is the 
tone of Amos’s words to Israel? What hope does he hold out to Judah and 
Israel? Does he call Yahwe the lord of all nations? Is this an advance 
out of national religious narrowness ? 

4. What was the date of Hosea’s prophecies? To which kingdom did 
he chiefly address himself ? Was his disposition like that of Amos ? What 
is his tone? What quality of Yahwe does he make prominent ? Is he also 
sometimes severe ? What does he say of Assyria ? 

5. What did Amos and Hosea try to do? How did they speak of 
Yahwe? How did they lay the foundations of pure monotheism ? 





LESSON XI 


THE FALL OF ISRAEL. AHAZ AND HEZEKIAH IN 
JUDAH. 


1. The Fall of the Northern Kingdom. — After the death 
of Jeroboam II. (about B.c. 744) the kingdom of Israel rapidly 
declined. The throne was occupied for twenty years by a series 
of worthless kings. There were constant wars, intrigues, and 
murders. King Pekah of Israel twice joined the Syrians in 
attacks on Judah; the second attack, which was directed against 
Ahaz (about B.c. 734), failed completely (2 Kings xvi. 5, Is. 
vii. 1). Ahaz called in the aid of the Assyrian king Tiglath- 
pileser II., who in B.c. 732 captured Damascus and destroyed the 
kingdom of Syria. For about 230 years (that is, ever since the 
death of Solomon) the Syrians had been a thorn in the side of 
Israel. But Israel gained nothing by their destruction ; they — 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, ara 


had, in fact, of late years been a barrier between it and the 
Assyrians, and now, the barrier removed, Israel was at the 
mercy of the huge northern empire. The end was not long de- 
layed. In the year 729 B.c. Hoshea (the name is the same as 
that of the prophet Hosea) ascended the throne of Samaria. 
He was a well-meaning man, and seems to have struggled hard 
to maintain his country’s independence. He adhered to the 
worship of Yahwe, and even attempted some reform (2 Kings 
xvii. 2). Seeing the overwhelming power of Assyria, he 
acknowledged himself the vassal of Shalmaneser (who was now 
on the throne), and paid him tribute. But soon after, he made 
the mistake of rebelling against Shalmaneser, and entering into 
alliance with Sabak (called in the Old Testament So), the 
Kushite king of Egypt. The Assyrians advanced against Israel, 
and in B.c. 720 Sargon, who had succeeded Shalmaneser, cap- 
tured Samaria, and then inflicted a decisive defeat on the 
Egyptians. The people of Israel were carried away and settled 
in Assyria, while men were brought from Assyria and settled in 
Samaria and round about (2 Kings xvii. 24). So the Assyrians 
used to do with all the nations they conquered. 


2. The Fate of the Israelites.— Thus ended the kingdom 
of Israel after an existence of about 240 years (B.c. 960-720). 
It had lived a troublous life, full of wars without and disorders 
within. It had produced strong religious men like Elijah, 
Elisha, and Hosea, and able kings, like Jeroboam I., Jehu, and 
Jeroboam II. Butits religious career ended prematurely, before 
it had attained the knowledge of the one God. Its peo- 
ple, however, were not destroyed. Some of them remained. in 
their own land and intermarried with the Assyrian colonists, 
and from them sprang the Samaritans, of whom we read in the 
book of Nehemiah and the Gospels. Others who were left in 
the land probably went down into Judah and settled. Those 
who were carried into Assyria settled there permanently. Some 
of them intermarried with the inhabitants and ceased to be 
Israelites. Others, no doubt, joined the people of Judah who 
were afterwards carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Those 
of them who remained faithful to the religion of their fathers 


‘ 


58 THE HISTORY OF THE 


helped to form a distinct community which lasted hundreds of 
years. They had great schools for the study of their law. 
Here they remained till after the Moslem conquest, and then 
made their way into Egypt and Spain, and thence into France 
and Germany. The Ten Tribes are no doubt now represented 
to some extent in the Jews who are found all over the world. 


3. Political History of Judah under Ahaz and Heze- 
kiah. — Israel had passed away, but the kingdom of Judah was 
to remain for 130 years yet. It was saved from overthrow, first 
by submission to the Assyrians, and then by the fact that the 
latter were occupied by wars with Egypt and other nations. 
The reigns of Uzziah and his son Jotham (B.c. 780-740) were 
comparatively quiet. Then came Ahaz, who was attacked by 
the Syrians and Israelites, and called on the Assyrian king for 
aid. The latter helped him, and Ahaz visited him as his vassal 
at Damascus (2 Kings xvi. 10). In the year B.c. 726 Ahaz 
died and was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. It was a time 
that called for skill, decision, and bravery. The Assyrians were 
overrunning the whole of southwestern Asia, nor could the 
Egyptians stand before them. Hezekiah’s only military hope 
was in the quarrels of his powerful neighbors and the strength 
of the city of Jerusalem. Against the petty peoples around 
Judah, such as the Philistines, he was successful in war, and in 
his later years he made an alliance with the king of Babylon 
(2 Kings xx. 12, 13), who was at that time (about B:c. 710 or 
704) in revolt against Assyria. Some years later the Assyfian 
king Sennacherib overran the territory of Judah, and besieged 
Jerusalem, but retired when Hezekiah acknowledged his author- 
ity, and paid him a large sum in silver and gold. The Jewish 
king thereupon made a treaty with the Kushite (Ethiopian) 


Tirhakah, who then ruled over Egypt, and revolted from Sennach- — 


erib. The latter then again invaded Palestine, and, marching 
by Jerusalem, went to meet the Egyptian army. On the eve of 
battle, however, the Assyrian host was overwhelmed by some 
dreadful calamity (2 Kings xix.), the nature of which is not 
known, and Sennacherib returned home (s.c. 701). Soon after 
this Hezekiah died (s.c. 697), and the land had rest. 


~ 


- RELIGION OF ISRAEL. : 59 


4. Religious History of Judah. — Judah’s religious history 
during the latter part of this century comprises two important 
events: a reaction by Ahaz, anda reform by Hezekiah. Ahaz 
re-established the old Canaanite custom of human sacrifice (per- 
haps it was also an old Israelite custom), and resumed worship 
in the high places (2 Kings xvi. 3, 4). Possibly in this he was 
imitating the idolatry of his friends the Assyrians; and the 
people would not be slow tofollow hisexample. Seeing an altar 
that he liked at Damascus, he sent orders to the priest Urijah to 
make a similar one for the temple of Yahwe at Jerusalem 
(2 Kings xvi. 10-16). The priest obeyed, and the king pre- 
seribed the sacrificial service. All this was regarded as lawful 
worship of Yahwe; it seems that the strict rules of the book of 
Leviticus did not exist at this time. But when Heze- 
kiah came to the throne everything was changed. Fortunately 
he was the obedient pupil of the prophet Isaiah, who was zealous 
for the worship of Yahwe. All images of gods and pillars 
erected to Ashera were destroyed. Among others there was a 
bronze serpent that had long been an object of worship, and was 
said to have been made by Moses for a particular purpose (Num. 
xxi. 9); Hezekiah broke it in pieces, calling it contemptuously 
nehushtan, ‘‘a bronze thing.’? He went farther, and removed 
the high places, where the people had worshipped Yahwe from 
time immemorial. This seemed to many persons a violent pro- 
cedure, — it appeared to be breaking up the worship of Yahwe; 
and this was the report that the Assyrians had of it (2 Kings 
Xviii. 22). But Hezekiah suppressed these local places of wor- 
ship in order to force his people to come up to the temple at 
Jerusalem, where it would be possible to guard against idolatry. 
It was a step in the right direction; and though the next king 
returned to the old practices, and the reform was not completed 
for eighty years, Hezekiah laid the foundation of the work. 


LITERATURE. 


The commentaries on Kings and histories above mentioned, 
especially Lange, Schrader, George Smith, and Tiele. Also 
Cheyne’s ‘‘ Prophecies of Isaiah,’’ London, 1880. 


60 THE HISTORY OF THE 


QUESTIONS. 


1. After the death of Jeroboam II., what was the fortune of Israel? 
When Israel and Syria attacked Ahaz, king of J udah, whom did he call to 
his aid? What became of the kingdom of Syria? Did its destruction help 
Israel ? Who was the last king of Israel? What was his character? Why 
did he submit to Assyria? What mistake did he afterwards make? What 
was the result? In what year was Samaria captured by Sargon? Is this 
date tolerably certain? [Yes, it is assured by the Assyrian inscriptions. ] 
What became of the people of Israel ? 

2. How long did the kingdom of Israel endure? Did it produce great 
men? Did it reach clear religious knowledge? Were its people all de- 
stroyed? What became of those who remained in their own land ?—of 
those who were carried away to Assyria? Where are they now? What 
would you say of attempts to find the Ten Tribes in various Asiatic, Euro- 
pean, or American nations? [Such attempts are folly.] 

3. How long did the kingdom of Judah last after the fall of Israel ? 
How was it saved from overthrow? What was Ahaz’s career? Who was 
his son and successor? When did he ascend the throne? Was Hezekiah 
successful against his petty neighbors? Was he obliged to submit to the 
Assyrians? What became of the Assyrian army? 5 

4. What two important events occurred in this period? Describe the re- 
action of Ahaz? Was this then thought to be lawful? When Hezekiah 
came to the throne, did he follow his father’s example? Who was his chief 
adviser in religion? What did he do to the images ? — to the bronze ser- 
vent? What is the story about Moses and this serpent? Did Hezekiah 
suffer the high places to remain? Why not? 





LESSON XII. 


THE PROPHETS MICAH AND ISAIAH. 


1. The Groups of Prophets.— The prophets were preach- 
ers, but preachers of a peculiar sort: their discourses were 
always addressed to the nation. They denounced its vices, and 
they looked forward to and depicted its future. Thus they were 
eminently men of their times, and the tone of their writings 
varies according to the changing outward and inward cireum- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 61 


stances of thepeople. We may group them by historical periods, 
each period having certain political and religious characteristics: 
1. The prophets of the Jehu dynasty, Amos and Hosea, when 
the fall of Israel was impending; 2. The Judah prophets of 
the first Assyrian attack, Micah and Isaiah I., after whom, at a 
later time, follows Nahum; 8. The prophets of the Chaldean 
period, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Obadiah; 4. The 
prophets of the Exile, Ezekiel and Isaiah II.; 5. The prophets 
of the return, Haggai and Zechariah I; 6. The prophets of the 
legal period, Malachi, Joel, Zechariah II. 


2. The Times of Micah and Isaiah.— Before studying 
the writings of Micah and Isaiah, let us look at the circumstances 
of their time, and the ideas these circumstances gave rise to. 
Judah was now beginning to be a part of the great world. 
Heretofore it had been an isolated little land, warring with 
tribes around it, but mostly unknown to and ignorant of the 
great empires. Now approaches the time when it is to be ab- 
sorbed into the world’s history. It is to fall into the clutches 
of Assyria, and then into the hands of the Babylonians, Persians, 
Greeks, and Romans. In our survey of the history we have 
come to the starting-point of this process, — the first attack on 
Judah by Assyria. The question was, what to do; Isaiah and 
his friends said, ‘‘ Keep clear of foreign alliances, trust Yahwe, 
and he will take care of his people;’? but Hezekiah did not 
follow their advice. This was the burden of the 
prophets’ cry: ‘‘ We are Yahwe’s people, and he will give us 
victory over our enemies, and peace and prosperity.’ And as 
the present did not offer this prosperity, they looked to the future 
for its incoming, and painted a glorious time of triumph and 
joy. In the different historical periods this time of joy was 
portrayed in different forms. The peculiarity of the portraiture 
in Hezekiah’s time is that Judah’s glory is expected to be 
ushered in by an individual king, a descendant of David. For 
the king was the natural head of the nation, and it was the 
house of David that God had placedon the throne. Afterwards 
this royal deliverer was called the ‘anointed one,’’ or the 
Messiah (kings were anointed with oil at their coronation); and 


62 THE HISTORY OF THE ; " 


so we generally call this expectation of future glory for the peo- 
ple the Messianic hope of Israel. 


3. Micah.— Of Micab we know only what is stated in the 
inscription of his prophecy (and we cannot be always sure that 
these inscriptions are wholly correct), that he preached in the 
days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (perhaps about B.c. 
745-702), with one little incident recorded in Jer. xxvi. 18, 19. 
He seems to have been a sad and passionate man (i. 8) ; it is 
vengeance on sin that he mostly speaks of. The outline of his 
book is this: after denouncing the sin of Israel and Judah, he 
describes a march of the Assyrians through the territory of Judah 
(i. 9-16), with many plays-on the names of the various places; 
it is hard to say whether this march is real or imagined. Next 
comes a terrible picture of the wickedness of the people (ii., 


iii.), and then he turns to tell of the glorious time when many 


nations should give up their own gods and worship Yahwe, and 
wars should cease (iv. 1-5). Zion’s enemies were then pressing 
her hard, and an Assyrian attack was expected, but the prophet 
comforts himself with thought of that king, of the ancient 
family of David, who should conquer the Assyrians (iv. 11-yv. 8). 
In later times this was supposed to refer to Christ (Mat. ii. 4-6); 
but, though Christ was a great deliverer, it is not probable that 
the prophet is referring to him here. Micah’s last discourses 
have much to say about holiness of life (see the noble thought 
in vi. 8). Society in his time was very corrupt, but he looks 
hopefully to God’s mercy (vii. 18-20). Notice the references 
to the ancient times (vi. 4, 5, vii. 15, 20). 


4. The Life of Isaiah. — The prophet Isaiah is one of the 
greatest figures of the Old Testament, and his book one of the 
noblest, from the extent, vigor, eloquence, and lofty religious 
sentiment of its discourses. He had a long career, beginning 
in Uzziah’s last year (Is. vi. 1), and reaching probably to the 
close of Hezekiah’s reign, about B.c. 750-700. There was a 
tradition that he wrote the annals of Hezekiah’s time (2 Chron. 
xxxii. 32). Butitis as prophet and statesman that he is known 
to us. Disregarded by Ahaz (Is. vii. 12), he became Heze- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 63 


kiah’s chief adviser (2 Kings xix. 2, xx. 1, 14), warned him 
against trusting to Egypt and other nations, and, on the occa- 
sion of Sennacherib’s invasion, counselled him to resist the 
Assyrians and trust in Yahwe. For half a century his voice 
was lifted up against the idolatry and wickedness of his people, 
against religious formalism, for purity and holiness (see chap. i.). 
He looked steadfastly forward to the triumph of holiness in the 
triumph of the pure worship of Yahwe. 


5. Isaiah’s Prophecies. — The book of the Old Testament 
to which Isaiah’s name is attached is a long one, of sixty-six 
chapters. Butnot all of this was written by our prophet. The 
second part, chapters x].-Ixvi., is the work of a prophet of the 
Exile, whom we will call the Second Isaiah Csaiah IL.). It is 
probable, also, that the historical chapters, xxxvi.—xxxix., which 
are interposed between the two parts, belong to the same period 
(though they may be based on notes made by Isaiah or one of 
his contemporaries); they are nearly identical with 2 Kings 
xvill. 13-xx, Of the remaining thirty-five chapters, we must 
leave out xiii: and xiv. 1-23, xv. and xvi. 1-12, and probably 
XXi., Xxxiv.,xxxv. There still remains enough to illustrate the 
prophet’s genius and piety. Among the more striking discourses 
may be mentioned the call to repentance in chapter i., the woes, 
in v., the prediction of Assyria’s overthrow, in x., and the picture 
of the days of the righteous king, in xi.; and the vision, in Vies 
and the prophet’s symbolical children, in vii. and viii., are not 
less interesting. The discourses must be read not by chapters, 
but as wholes, and it must be remembered that Isaiah had in 
mind on the one hand Israel’s political enemies, and on the other, 
the idolatry, formality, and wickedness of the people. 


6. Isaiah’s Hope of the Future.— And to what future did 
the prophet look forward for his people ? He expected political 
independence and prosperity under a Davidic king. He speaks ~ 
of a prince born or to be born in his own time (ix. 6, 7), under 
whom Israel should conquer its enemies, peace should prevail, 
Yahwe should be worshipped everywhere, and even wild beasts 
and serpents should become harmless (xi.). And there should 


64 THE HISTORY OF THE 


then be righteousness and holiness in the land. These hopes of 
the prophet were not literally fulfilled. Egypt was never united 
with Assyria in the worship of Yahwe (xix. 21-25). No son of © 
David was ever after to be a conquering king. But in its broad 
scope what the prophet looked for has really come to pass. The 
purified knowledge of the one true God has been established in 
the earth. Out of Israel came Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, 
the Christ, who has taught us to worship the Father, and has 
founded a kingdom more glorious and enduring than was ever 
dreamed of by king or prophet. Isaiah’s trust in God’s right- 
eousness and faithfulness was not a mistake, 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Micah: the general commentaries mentioned in Lesson 
X.2; Noyes. 

2. On Isaiah: Delitzsch’s Commentary, English translation, 
Edinburgh, 1869; Cheyne’s ‘‘ Prophecies of Isaiah,” London, 
1880; Noyes. 

3. Maurice’s ‘‘ Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament,” 
Boston, 1853; Ewald’s ‘‘ Prophets of the Old Testament,” Eng- 
lish translation, London, 1875; W. R. Smith’s ‘‘ Prophets of 
Israel,’’ New York, 1882 ; articles on Micah and Isaiah in cyclo- 
pedias; books of Introduction. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What was the peculiarity of the prophets as preachers ? Do their 
discourses vary in character according to the times? How may we 
group them? How many groups? Can you mention the prophets of each 
group ? 

2. Before studying the writings of the prophets, what is it proper to 
learn? When Assyria attacked Judah, what did Isaiah counsel? In 
whose help did he trust? Did Judah attain to prosperity immediately ? 
When the present did not bring peace, to what point did the prophets look? 
With what did the prophet’s picture of future joy vary? What was its 
form in the days of Micah and Isaiah? What is meant by the Messianic 
hope of Israel ? 

3. What do we know of Micah’s life? What incident concerning him 
is recorded in the book of Jeremiah? What was his character? By whom 


: RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 65 


does he expect Yahwe to deliver Judah from the Assyrians? [iv. 2-v. 8.] 
To whom did the early Christians think this referred? Is this view correct? 
Can you mention a noble passage in Micah’s writings ? 

4. Was Isaiah a greatman? Why? How long did he prophesy? Did 
he write any book of history ? Was he a faithful preacher ? 

5. How many chapters in the book called by Isaiah’s name? Were all 
these written by him? How many must we leave out ? Why? [Because 
they contain things that do not belong to his time.] Can you describe the 
vision of chapter vi.? How do we determine the date of any particular 
chapter? [By noting the historical allusions.] What history helps very 
much in this? [The Assyrian. ] 

6. What did Isaiah expect for his people? Were these hopes ever lit- 
erally fulfilled? In what sense have they been fulfilled? Did Isaiah say 
that the knowledge of God should fill the earth? [Chap. xi. 9.] Is this 
now nearly true? Did Isaiah look for a righteous king? Has Jesus of 
Nazareth founded a kingdom? What is its nature ? 





LESSON XIII. 


THE REFORM OF JOSIAH. 


‘1. Partial Character of Hezekiah’s Reform.—In the 
Lesson before the last we saw that King Hezekiah, probably 
under the influence of the prophet Isaiah, tried to better the 
national worship of Judah by destroying the idols all over the 
land. The effect of this procedure was to direct men’s minds 
to Jerusalem as the centre of worship for the whole nation. 
True, the people were attached to the old shrines, which were 
more or less idolatrous ; but in those troublous times, when 
‘powerful enemies were threatening the land, and Jerusalem was 
the only safe place, it was easier for the reform party to put 
down the local sanctuaries, and insist on the worship of Yahwe, 
whose great temple was in the national capital. We 
must not suppose, however, that Hezekiah’s reform was spiritual, 
like Luther’s ; it did not attempt to teach men that God was to 
be worshipped in spirit and in truth (though Isaiah did insist on 
this), but only to abolish the worship of foreign deities. And 

5 


66 THE HISTORY OF THE 


even in this outward respect it was not thorough ; we learn from 
2 Kings xxiii. 13, that it was not Hezekiah but Josiah who 
destroyed the shrines that Solomon had long before built to 
Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom, 


2. The Reaction under Manasseh. — Moreover, it appears 
that what was done was the work of a reform party rather than 
a movement of the nation. The prophets, with Isaiah at their 
head, prevailed on the king to take vigorous measures against 
the idols, but it was not so easy to bring the people to give up 
the forms of worship that they had inherited from their fathers. 
And so, when Hezekiah died, about B.c. 697, his son and suc- 
cessor, Manasseh, set about restoring the former condition of 
things (2 Kings xxi.). He rebuilt the high places which his 
father had destroyed, re-established the Canaanitish worship of 
Baal and the Ashera images, together with magic arts and 
human sacrifices ; and further, in addition to Ahaz’s sun-wor- 
ship (2 Kings xxiii. 11, 12), he introduced the fuller worship 
of the hosts of heaven (sun, moon, and stars). He 
did not do all this without opposition. The Yahwe party with- 
stood him with all their might. We do not know whether 
Isaiah was still alive (there is a late story that he was sawn 
asunder by Manasseh), but his disciples (Is. viii. 16), the 
prophets and others, no doubt tried to continue his work. The 
king was not a mild-natured man, aud could not brook opposi- 
tion ; he put to death those who stood in his way. The blood 
of the Yahwe party flowed freely in Jerusalem. Not that he 
refused to serve the God of Israel; but he chose to serve other 
gods as well; and the people doubtless approved his course. So 
it went on throughout his long reign of fifty-five years. The 
book of Chronicles says, indeed (2 Chron. xxxiii.), that he 
repented and destroyed the idols; but this does not agree with 
the succeeding history as given in the book of Kings (compare 
2 Kings xxiii. 12, with 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15). His son and suc- 
cessor, Amon, followed his father’s example. 


3. Progress of the Yahwe Party.— It might thus seem 
as if Manasseh had destroyed all that Isaiah and Hezekiah had 


7 
: 
4 


— 


————<-=--—- 


al is 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 67 


with so much labor built up; the people had gone back to idols, 
But this was not the case. The party that favored the sole 
worship of Yahwe was not dead, and subsequent events show 
that it was gathering force. Hezekiah had begun to concentrate 
the national worship at Jerusalem, and pious men now saw that 
this was a necessity for the people. Hitherto the prophets 
generally had not disapproved of local shrines away from Jeru- 
salem, provided they were devoted to Yahwe. But now, during 
and after Hezekiah’s reign, they began to say that the people 
could never be weaned from other gods so long as they were 
allowed to worship wherever they pleased in the land; they must 
be required to go up to Jerusalem and offer their sacrifices in 
the temple of Yahwe there, and then they would get into the 
habit of worshipping Yahwe alone. 


4. The Book of Deuteronomy. — After a while some pro- 
phetic man, whose name we do not know, compiled a law book, 
in which he laid it down as arule that offerings must be made 
only in Jerusalem. As this rule was believed to be necessary to 
the true religious life of the nation, to be part of the law of 
Yahwe, it was naturally represented as having been given by 
the great prophet and lawgiver, Moses; in those days it was the 
custom to refer wisdom and authority to ancient sages. The 
book thus prepared was the one that we call Deuteronomy. Its 
legal part is contained in chapters xil.-xxvi.; this includes 
some older laws, together with customs which had been intro- 
duced during and after Hezekiah’s time. The law of the one 
sanctuary is given in chapter xii.; see especially verses 5 and 
13. To this legal portion is prefixed a general exhortation 
(put into the mouth of Moses) to be faithful to Yahwe (chapters 
i-xii.); and at the end follow blessings and curses (xxvil.— 
xxx.), then a song (xxxii.), and a blessing of the tribes («xxiii.) 
(poems probably composed at an earlier time), and some histori- 
cal statements (xxxi. and xxxiv.). This earliest of the great 
law books of Israel is very interesting to us. It is the monu- 
ment of a great religious conflict, and the sign of a great relig- 
ious progress. It was the beginning of the movement that 
produced the Pentateuchal legislation. And it is full of deep 


68 THE HISTORY OF THE 


and pure religious feeling. It is abundantly quoted in the 
New Testament, for example in Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10. 


5. Reform under Josiah.— We return now to the history 
of Judah. After Amon came the young Josiah, a boy eight 
years old, who for eighteen years let things go on as his father 
and grandfather had conducted them. But in the eighteenth 
year of his reign he was suddenly waked up by a curious event, 
namely, the finding of a law book in the temple. The king 
was engaged in repairing the temple (2 Kings xxii.), and, while 
the work was in progress, the priest Hilkiah reported that he 
had found a book of the law. The young king directed it to be 
read to him. He listened with astonishment and terror to the 
punishment denounced against idolatry. He saw that he and 
his people were acting contrary to the law as given in this book. 
How should they escape? He consulted the prophets and 
priests, and immediately set to work to extirpate idolatry. He 
undid all that his grandfather Manasseh had done; he made a 
clean sweep of idol-temples and images from Solomon’s down. 
Read the graphic account in 2 Kings xxiii. It was very nearly 
the destruction of idolatry in Judah; after this we hear little of 
it. And the book that was read to Josiah was as substantially the 
book of Deuteronomy. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the history: the ‘‘ Bible for Learners; ”’ the histories 
of Kuenen, Wellhausen, and others above mentioned; J. H. 
Allen, ‘‘ Hebrew Men and Times,’’ Boston, 1879. 

2. On Deuteronomy: Introduction of Bleek-Wellhausen; 
W. R. Smith’s ‘‘ Old Testament in the Jewish Church.”’ 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What had Hezekiah tried to do? What was the effect of this? 
Were the people attached to the old shrines? Why was it easier at this 
time to turn the worship to Jerusalem ? Was Hezekiah’s reform spiritual ? 
What did it do ? Was it thorough even in this respect? 

2. Was the whole nation concerned in this movement of Hezekiah ? 
What happened when he died ? What did Manasseh do? Who opposed 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 69 


him ? How did he treat them? Was he also a worshipper of Yahwe ? 
What does the book of Chronicles say of him? Is this probable ? 

3. Had Manasseh destroyed the party that favored the sole worship of 
Yahwe? What had Hezekiah begun to do? What did pious men now 
see ? Had the prophets hitherto condemned the local shrines devoted to 
Yahwe? What change took place in their views during and after Hezekiah’s 
time ? 

4. What book was written about this time? What rule did it lay 
down? To what ancient prophet was it ascribed? Can you turn to this 
book and point out its divisiens? Why is it interesting to us? Where is it 
quoted in the New Testament? What is the date of its composition? 
[Probably not far from B.c. 622.] 

5. What king succeeded Manasseh and Amon? How old was he when 
he came to the throne? How long did things go on in the old way? 
What roused him? How did this happen? What did Josiah do? What 
was the book that was found in the temple ? 





LESSON XIV. 


JEREMIAH AND THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 


1. The Capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. — We 
must now briefly relate the events that led to the destruction of 
Jerusalem, and the temporary breaking up of the nation of 
Judah; they are described in the books of Kings and Chronicles, 
and of the last years there is a vivid picture in the book of 
Jeremiah. After the death of Hezekiah the land had 
rest for many years. It was subject to Assyria, but the Assyri- 
ans, occupied elsewhere, made no new invasion. The surround- 
ing petty nations, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, 
gave, as it seems, no serious trouble, though there were, per- 
haps, incursions by the Arabs. Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah 
devoted themselves wholly to internal affairs. But great 
changes in the history of the world were impending, in which 
the little kingdom of Judah was to be involved. About B.c. 
606 (the date is uncertain) the Assyrian empire fell before the 
combined attack of the Medes and Babylonians, and in the 
partition of territory that followed, Judah, with the rest of 


70 THE HISTORY OF THE 


Canaan, was assigned to Babylon. The end came soon. About 
B.c. 609 the king of Egypt had made an expedition against the 
Assyrians; Josiah, king of Judah, opposed his advance, and 
was defeated and slain at Megiddo (2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30). The 
king of Egypt deposed Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, who had suc- 
ceeded his father, and set up in his place another son of Josiah, 
Jehoiakim, as his vassal-king. But the power of the Egyptian 
empire was speedily broken. In B.c. 605 King Necho was 
defeated at Karkemish by Nebuchadnezzar, the young king of 
Babylon, and after this the king of Egypt was shut up in his 
own land (2 Kings xxiv. 7). Jehoiakim submitted to Nebuchad- 
nezzar, and, though he rebelled, remained the vassal of Baby- 
lon. After reigning eleven years he died and was succeeded 
by his son Jehoiachin, who at the end of three months was 
carried, together with many of his subjects, to Babylon by the 
Chaldeans (that is, the Babylonians); here he remained a pris- 
oner thirty-seven years, and was then released by Nebuchadnez- 
zar’s son and successor, Avilmarduk (2 Kings xxv. 27-30). In 
his stead the Chaldeans placed on the throne of Jerusalem 
Zedekiah (s.c. 598), a weak prince, who angered Nebuchadnez- 
zar by various attempts at rebellion. Finally, about B.c. 587, 
the latter came up to Jerusalem, besieged and captured it, 
destroyed the temple, and carried off the greater part of the 
people to Babylon. This was the end of the Davidie kingdom 
of Judah, which had existed (from Rehoboam’s accession) 
nearly four hundred years. Presently we shall see a new com- 
munity established in Judah, and then another kingdom (the 
Hasmonean), and then will come Christianity. All through 
these years God is preparing the Jews for the coming of the 
Christ. Though the nation was broken up and held in subjec- 
tion by foreigners, it continued to learn new truths of religion. 
For a description of the last days of the Judah kingdom, see 
Jer. xxxvii.—xliii. 


2. Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk.— The prophets 
who flourished in the seventh century B.c. are Nahum, Zepha- 
niah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah. To the three first of these we 
need give only a word. Nahum (perhaps about B.c. 630) directs 


— 


i 
- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. - 71 


his prophecy against the Assyrian empire (Nineveh), of which 
he describes the oppression and predicts the downfall; the Assyr- 
jans had been cruel to Judah, and Yahwe would destroy them. 
The prophecy was probably uttered about the time when the 
Assyrian power began to wane and enemies gathered around 
Nineveh. Zephaniah’s prophecy falls not far from 
Nahum’s, but its exact date is not determined. His view em- 
braces almost all the surrounding nations, — Assyria, Ethiopia, 
the Philistines, Moab, and Ammon. He speaks of an approach- 
ing “day of Yahwe”’ (i. 14), when idolatry should be rooted 
out, Judah’s enemies destroyed, and Judah itself dwell in safety; 
and he rebukes those who thought that Yahwe sat with folded 
hands, and had nothing to do with the affairs of the nation 
(i. 12). Habakkuk, writing somewhere about B.c. 605, 
announces the speedy coming of the Chaldeans, their might and 
victory, and their following overthrow; his refrain and the 
ground of his hope is: ‘‘ Yahwe is in his holy temple; let all 
the earth keep silence before him”? (ii. 20). There is added a 
’ beautiful hymn (iii.) in which God’s majesty is celebrated. 


3. Jeremiah’s Life. — More space must be given to Jere- 
miah, one of the most important of the prophets of Israel, a 
man of intense patriotism, deep spirituality, and lofty faith in 
the mercy and power of Israel’s God. Thanks to the biograph- 
ical details in his book, we know more of his personal character 
and fortunes than of those of any other prophet. In some 
points he resembles the Apostle Paul: like him he is intense in 
feeling, and eager and unwearied in action, and like him he is 
condemned to be misunderstood and hated by his countrymen. 
On the other hand, unlike Paul, he was retiring by nature, 

‘shrinking from a public career, yet driven by an inward voice 
to a life of ceaseless conflict. According to the superscription 
of his book he began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of 
Josiah’s reign, about B.c. 626. He denounced the wickedness, 
the idolatry, and the religious formality of the people; Yahwe, 
said he (vii. 22, 23), has commanded not offerings of animals, 
but obedience to his will. On one occasion (vii. 2) he stood in 
the gate of the temple, and told the throng of worshippers that 


72 THE HISTORY OF THE 


this house was nothing unless they amended their ways. Later, 
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (B.c. 605), the prophet’s secre- 


tary, Baruch, wrote his words down, and they were read before — 


the king, who showed his appreciation of them by cutting the 
book to pieces with his knife and throwing it into the fire 
(xxxvi.). In fact, the political and religious ideas of Jeremiah 
were very different from those of the king and princes. They 
were for resisting the Babylonians and asserting their indepen- 
dence ; he saw that this was fatal folly, —they could not stand 
against the mighty power of Babylon. They accused him of 
treason (this was when Zedekiah was king), and threw him into 
a dungeon, whence he was released only when Jerusalem was 
taken (xxxvii., xxxviii.). He was not carried to Babylon 
(xxxix.), but after a while was forced by a party of Jews to go 
with them to Egypt (alii., xliii.), where he probably died {the 
date of his death is unknown). 


4. His Faith and Teaching. — Jeremiah trusted wholly to 
the truthfulness and goodness of the God of Israel, and his 
hopes were fulfilled, though not in the way that he expected. 
He supposed that the people would go into captivity (xxv. 
8-11), and that afterwards their deliverance would be effected 
through a king, a descendant of David, who should be called 
‘* Yahwe our righteousness ” (xxiii. 5, 6), that is, he should be 
aman who should show forth in his life and government the 
righteousness of which Yahwe would approve (the same name 
is given to Judah, xxxiii. 16). No such king came; but the 
captivity itself taught Israel something about true righteous- 
ness, and long afterwards God sent Jesus with a more perfect 
teaching. The prophet said also that the time was coming when 
God’s law should be written on the people’s heart; when they 
should obey him freely and gladly (xxxi. 31-34); and this is the 
spirit of the New Testament. 


5. His Book.—Jeremiah’s prophecies were gathered and 
written at various times, and they are not arranged in chrono- 
logical order in the Hebrew and our English version (the order 
is better in the Greek version). The date of each prophecy 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 73 


must be made out by the superscriptions and the contents. A 
few passages now included in the book were not written by 
Jeremiah: chapters l., li., belong to the time of the Exile (like 
Is. xiii., xiv); the prophecy against Moab (xlviii.) appears to 
be an imitation of Is. xv., xvi., but, if this is so, it may never- 
theless be Jeremiah’s. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Nahum: the general works on prophecy above men- 
tioned; the “ Speaker’s Commentary,’ and the ‘‘ Kurzgefasstes 
Exegetisches Handbuch;” articles in Schenkel’s Bibel-Lexi- 
con and Encyclopedia Britannica. 

2. On Zephaniah: the same as for Nahum, and articles in 
Herzog’s Encyclopiidie and Encyclopedia Britannica. 

3. On Habakkuk: the same. 

4. On Jeremiah: the same as above, and Lange’s Commen- 


tary. 
QUESTIONS. 


1. Where is the destruction of Jerusalem described ? What was the 
state of Judah under Kings Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah? What nations 
overthrew the Assyrian empire? To whose share did Judah fall? How 
was Josiah killed? Whom did'the Egyptian king place on the throne of 
Jerusalem ? By whom was the power of Egypt broken ? Who succeeded 
Jehoiakim as king? What became of him? What was the character of 
Zedekiah ? By whom was Jerusalem captured? When? How long had 
the Davidie kingdom of Judah lasted? For what was God preparing the 
Jews ? 

2. What four prophets flourished in the seventh century ? Can you turn 
to their writings in the Bible? Of what does Nahum speak ? What 
nations does Zephaniah’s view embrace ? Of what day does he speak? 
Whom does he rebuke? What event does Habakkuk announce ? What, 
then, is his probable date? What sentence expresses his hope ? 

-3. What was Jeremiah’s character? Why do we know more of him 
than of the other prophets ? Wherein does he resemble the Apostle Paul ? 
In what is he unlike Paul? When did he begin to prophesy? What did 
he denounce? What did he tell the worshippers at the gate of the temple ? 
Who wrote his words down? To whom were they read? What did the 
king do? Were the prophecies written down again? [Yes, with additions; 
see Jer. xxxvi. 32.] How did Jeremiah’s political and religious ideas differ 


74 THE HISTORY OF THE 


from those of the king and princes? Of what did they accuse him? What 
became of him ? 

4. To what did Jeremiah trust ? Were his hopes fulfilled? What did 
he expect? Did such a king arise? What did the captivity teach Israel ? 
Where did the prophet say God’s law should be written ? Is this the spirit 
of the New Testament ? 3 

5. When were Jeremiah’s prophecies written down? Are they arranged 
in chronological order in the English version? In what version is the order 
better? Where and when was the Greek version made? [In Alexandria 
in Egypt, about B.c. 200.] How do we make out the dates of the prophe- 
cies? What is to be said of the authorship of chapters L., li. ? Why do we 
suppose that they were not written by Jeremiah ? [Because they say that 
the people are already in captivity in Babylon, and because they are hostile 
to Babylon, while Jeremiah is always friendly to that kingdom, which he 
regards‘as Yahwe’s instrument for chastising Israel.] 





LESSON XYV. 


THE EXILE. 


1. The Carrying Away of the Jews to Babylon.— 
When we speak of ‘‘ the Exile,’? we commonly mean the cap- 
tivity of the Jews in Babylon from the capture and destruction 
of the city of Jerusalem (B.c. 587) to the return of a portion of 
the people to Palestine (B.c. 537 or 536). A large part of the 
northern kingdom, Israel, had been carried away to Assyria 
some time before this (B.c. 720), but some of them had remained, 
and with the Assyrian settlers formed the mixed people called 
Samaritans (see Lesson XI.); this captivity is called the Exile 
of the Ten Tribes, or the Assyrian Exile. The Babylonian 
Exile, of which we have now to speak, was more important than 
the Assyrian captivity for the political and religious fortunes of 
the nation, and therefore is usually called ‘‘the Exile.’? King 
Nebuchadnezzar (or, as the name is more‘ properly written, 
Nebuchadrezzar) carried off first a large body of people on the 
accession of Jehoiachin (B.c. 598), and then another large body 
when he took the city, eleven years later (2 Kings xxiv. 14-16, 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 75 


xxv. 11). There remained in Judah only the poorer class of 
husbandmen, or tillers of the soil, and vinedressers (xxv. 12). 
Over these the Babylonian general appointed a Judean as 
governor; but some fanatics, who still fancied they might be 
independent of Babylon, assassinated him, and the people, 
fearing the vengeance of the Babylonians, left their country 
and went down to Egypt (2 Kings xxy. 22-26, Jer. xxxix.- 
xliii.). Others of the people had probably fled to the surround- 
ing territory of Moab and Ammon and Philistia; and so Judea 
was left desolate, almost uninhabited, till the return ordered by 
Cyrus (see next Lesson). The nation is no longer in Canaan, 
but in Babylon, and thither we must follow it. 


2. The Results of the Exile.— The prophet Jeremiah had 
declared (Jer. xxv. 11) that Judah and all the nations round 
about should be carried off, and should serve the king of Baby- 
lon seventy years, which is to be taken as a round number; what 
became of the other nations we do not know, but the captivity 
of Judah lasted fifty years if we reckon from the destruction of 
the city (s.c. 587-537), sixty years from the accession and carry- 
ing off of Jehoiachin (598-537, see Ezek. i. 2), and about seventy 
years from the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605-537, see Jer. xxv. 
1,11). The time is of little consequence; we are more con- 
cerned with what the captive Jews learned in Babylon. Their 
political independence was destroyed, and they did not regain 
it till shortly before the birth of Christ. As to their religious 
ideas, these four things may be said: 1. The Exile brought 
them on a great way toward religious manhood. It did this in 
part by sifting them, putting the best people together, and 
casting off the rest. When the Israelites first settled in Canaan, 
they all worshipped a number of gods, and were like children 
in their religious ideas and practices; they were not at all 
different from their neighbors. Gradually the more enlightened 
among them came to see that it was better for them to worship 
only their own god, Yahwe, and they thought of him as not 
only powerful but also holy and just. Then men like Amos said 
that Yahwe, though he was the God of Israel, was also the ruler 
of all the nations. Finally, in the Exile, the deepest thinkers 


76 THE HISTORY OF THE ~ 


came to the conclusion that the idols of the other nations were 
nothing, and that there was only one God in the world, and he 
was Israel’s holy God. When they had once got hold of this 
idea, they never lost it; after this, idolatry could not tempt 
them, for they despised it. God was bringing them on by a 
sure path to know him. Perhaps the more enlightened and 
spiritual of the Jews would have reached this faith in the one 
God (monotheism) even if they had stayed in their own land; 
but the chastisement of exile made them more thoughtful, and 
at the same time, by breaking up the government, brought the 
better people together into a society or church, and in this way 
hastened the result. 2, The Exile not only destroyed idolatry 
among the Judean captives, but also gave them larger and more 
spiritual views of Yahwe’s relation to his people. They had 
thought that the temple at Jerusalem was his dwelling-place. 
Now the temple was destroyed, there were no sacrifices, they 
had to worship without priests and offerings. The earthly 
kingdom was destroyed, and Yahwe alone was king. Israel 
was the servant of foreign nations, but Israel had something 
better than military power, —it had the presence of the true 
God, and his instruction; and it should become a light to the 
other nations to guide them to God. Israel was suffering, but 
by its suffering should atone for sin and reconcile men to God. 
So taught some of the prophets (Is. xlix. 6, liii. 11, 12). This 
was a great progress in spirituality. 38. Another result was that 
the Jews now began to arrange their religious law. There had 
been several collections of political and religious rules of life. 
One of these, the oldest of which we know, compiled, perhaps, 
about B.c. 800, is contained in Ex. xxi.-xxiii. Another one is 
the book of Deuteronomy, of which we spoke in Lesson XIIL 
There was an increasing interest in this subject, and the interest 
was probably further heightened by acquaintance with the 
religious organization of the Babylonians, which was more 
perfect than that of the Israelites. The prophet Ezekiel drew 
up a new code. Other men were, no doubt, thinking how to 
better the temple-service when it should be restored. Then 
they all began to feel that a clear moral and religious law was 
necessary in order that the people might lead a worthy life. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 7 


We shall see how this thought afterwards bore fruit, and pre- 
pared the world for the coming of the Christ. 4. It seems also 
thatthe Jews learned at this time from the Babylonians a 
number of stories about the creation and early times of the 
world; and, after purging them of heathen notions, included 
them in their sacred books. They are now found in Gen. i.—xi. 
As we read nothing of these in the books of the Old Testament 
written before the Exile, it seems probable that the Jews now, 
for the first time, came to a distinct knowledge of them. 


3. Historical Books written at this Time.— During the 
Exile, several books of the Old Testament were written. His- 
tory proper is among the latest products of a national literature, 
and among the Jews it seems not to have flourished till about 
this time. There had before been annals and short narratives of 
particular periods; now, when the nation was broken up, in the 
quiet of exile, or in the desolation of Canaan, men began to 
think over the past, and wish to give an historical explanation of 
it. It was probably now that the books of Judges, Ruth, Sam- 
uel, and Kings were written. On these, see Lessons V., VI., 
VII. The book of Kings takes the same general view of relig- 
ious law as Deuteronomy; it blames all those who sacrificed 
elsewhere than at Jerusalem. Judges and Samuel do not insist 
on this rule; they are more largely made up of popular stories, 
and may have been composed earlier, perhaps about B.c. 650. 
The book of Ruth is a charming story of an ancestress of David. 
Perhaps other historical books were written just before and 
during the Exile; but these are all that have come down to us. 


4 Obadiah and Lamentations. — Some prophetical books 
belong to this period. From Obadiah (otherwise unknown to 
us) we have a word against the Edomites (perhaps directly after 
the destruction of Jerusalem), who, as it appears from the 
prophecy (verses 10-14), had helped to plunder the city and cut 
off the fugitives. _ About this time was composed the 
pathetic little poem (or rather, collection of five poems) called 
. Lamentations,” a lament over the fallen city. Our English 
version ascribes it to Jeremiah, but the Hebrew does not. 

Two other prophets we must reserve for another Lesson. 


\ 


78 THE HISTORY OF THE 


LITERATURE. 


1. The commentaries on Ruth are the same as those on 
Judges, Obadiah goes along with the rest of the Minor 
Prophets, and Lamentations with Jeremiah. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What do we commonly mean when we speak of “the Exile’?? What 
is the Assyrian Exile? By what other name is it called ? Who were the 
Samaritans? In what respect is the Babylonian Exile more important? 
On what two occasions did Nebuchadnezzar carry off the Jews to Babylon ? 
What people were left in Judea? What became of them? What was the 
state of the land? Where was the nation of Judah now ? 

2. How long did Jeremiah declare the Jews should remain captives in 
Babylon? Can we make out this number exactly ? Is it of much conse- 
quence? What is of more consequence ? What had become of the nation’s 
political independence ? What was the first effect of the Exile on the 
religious condition of Israel? How did it sift the people? What was the 
worship of the Israelites when they first settled in Canaan? What did the 
more enlightened (the prophets, for example) gradually come to see? 
Afterwards, what did men like Amos say ? Finally, to what conclusion did 
the deepest thinkers come? Would they have reached this conclusion 
without the Exile? How did the Exile help? What is monotheism? 
What was the second result of the Exile? What did Israel have that was 
better than military power? How could Israel, though in servitude to other 
nations, be a light to them ? Did one of the prophets think that Israel’s 
suffering would aid others? Can you turn to the passage? What was the 
third result of the Exile? What collections of laws were there before this 
period ? Was there now an increase of interest on this subject? What 
prophet drew up a new code? [See Ezek. xl —xlviii., especially xliii.—xlvi.] 
What did men begin to feel? Fourthly, what stories did the Jews probably 
learn at this time ? From whom? Where are they found in the Bible? 

3. Is history among the latest products of a national literature ? Can 
you tell why? What historical books were probably writtem about this 
time? Had there been earlier historical writings? Of what character? 
Wherein does the book of Kings agree with Deuteronomy? How are 
Judges and Samuel largely made up? Can you turn to these books, and 
point out some of the stories? What is the book of Ruth? Can you 
repeat the story of Ruth ? 

4. Against whom is the prophecy of Obadiah directed? What had they 
done? What is the subject of the book called Lamentations? Was it 
written by Jeremiah? [Hardly; it says, for example (ii. 9), that Judah's 
prophets find no vision from Yahwe.] 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 79 


LESSON XVI. 
THE PROPHETS OF THE EXILE. 


1. Condition of the Exiles. — The best part of the people of 
Israel had been carried off to Assyria and Babylonia. Some ot 
them (especially of those first carried away, B.c. 720) were no 
doubt absorbed in the Assyrian population; the later captives 
(the Judeans) formed a colony which maintained itself separate 
from the surrounding people. There is no reason to suppose 
that they suffered in body, at least in the early part of their cap- 
tivity. Doubtless they would sometimes think of native land 
and homes, and their hearts would grow sick with longing (Ps. 
exxxvii. 1); but in general the most of them were comfortable. 
Jt was as if they had all migrated to this distant land (whence 
their forefathers had long ago come). Their conquerors, the 
Babylonians, were not unkind to them. They seem to have had 
a district of their own, where they built houses, and planted, and 
reaped, and managed their own affairs; and the prophet Jeremiah 
exhorted them to be obedient and friendly to the people among 
whom they lived (Jer. xxix. 5-7). Indeed, he believed that the 
hope of the nation lay in these captives, whom God was purifying 
by this chastisement. Not that they all became righteous and 
devoted to God. There was discontent, murmuring, oppression, 
and probably idolatry among them. Towards the end of the 
Exile, possibly, the hand of their masters pressed heavily on 
them (Isa. lii., liii.). But by all their experiences the better part 
of the people were learning of God’s ways; and we shall find 
out something of their religious ideas from the two great proph- 
ets, Ezekiel and him who is commonly called the Second Isaiah. 


2. Ezelkxiel.—Our only source of information about Ezekiel 
is his book; please turn as often as possible to the references, 
and see for yourselves what he says. 1. Ezekiel seems to have 
been carried off to Mesopotamia at the same time with King 
Jehoiachin (B.c. 598) (Ezek. i. 1, 2 Kings xxiv. 15), and to 
have lived there the rest of his life in a place called Tel-Abib, 
by the river or canal Kebar (Ezek. iii. 15). He began to 
prophesy B.c. 593. He was a priest (i. 3), and though there 


80 THE HISTORY OF THE 


was no temple of Yahwe in Babylon, and he could not offer 
sacrifices, he was very much interested in the ritual, as we shall 
see; in this he was unlike Jeremiah, who, though a priest, cared 
little for sacrifices. He was married (xxiv. 18), and seems to 
have lived comfortably in his own house (Jeremiah was un- 
married). He was friendly to the Babylonians, and probably 
mixed with them and studied their religious customs. He 
was a bold and resolute man; his style of writing is not highly 
imaginative, but is striking by his free use of bold imagery. 
2. His book may be divided as follows: first come reproofs and 
threatenings directed against Israel, all dated before the de- 
struction of Jerusalem (i.-xxiv.); then prophecies against 
foreign nations (xxv.—xxxii.); a word when the city was taken 
(xxxiii.), followed by prophecies of comfort to Israel, and a 
word against Seir or Edom (xxxiv.-xxxix.); finally, a great 
vision of the restored Israel, an account of the temple and 
worship when the people should go back to Canaan (xl.-xlviii.). 
8. Ezekiel believed that the captivity was ordered by God, that 
he might purify his people, and show forth his power to the 
other nations (xxxvii. 27, 28). He expected that Israel would 
be restored as a nation to Canaan, that a king of the line of 
David would reign over them as in former times (xxxvil. 21- 
26), that the temple would be rebuilt in greater splendor than 
before, and that the people would dwell in their land forever. 
They did indeed go back to Canaan, but not just as he expected; 
God’s plans were not exactly those of the prophet. 4. Expect- 
ing his people’s return to their land, he drew up a constitution 
or religious code for that happy time. He wrote this in the form 
of a vision; it is contained in chapters xl.—xlviii. It was never 
carried into effect, for, when the people did return to Canaan, 
they were too poor and weak to adopt his magnificent plans. 
From the rules and laws that he gives it appears that he was 
not acquainted with the code of Numbers and Leviticus; this 
was drawn up later. But he goes beyond the code of Deuter- 
onomy. 5. Ezekiel’s ethical code is lofty and clear. He felt 
deeply his own responsibility as a religious teacher (iii., xxxiii.), 
He insisted strongly on every man’s personal responsibility 
(xviii.); he who does wrong, said he, must answer for it him- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 81 


self. He was a firm believer in the holiness and justice of the 
God of Israel, and a faithful teacher of his people. He was a 
priest, and perhaps thought overmuch of the temple and sacri- 
fices. But these were really necessary at that time, and he was 
truly a God-fearing man, filled with the spirit of God. 


3. The Second Isaiah. — Ezekiel wrote in the early part of 
the captivity, when Israel’s part was to submit to the Babylo- 
nians. After a while the Medes and Persians began to be 
powerful, and the Israelites hoped to be delivered by them, and 
restored to their own land. ‘Then the prophets began to speak 
against the Babylonians. Toward the end of the Exile there 
lived a great prophet, whose name we do not know. It hap- 
pened somehow that his writings were joined on to those of 
Isaiah, whom we have already studied (Lesson XII.), and they 
are now printed in our Bible as chapters xl.-lxvi. of the proph- 
ecy of Isaiah. For want of a better name we call him the 
Second Isaiah (it is possible that his name was really Isaiah, 
and that this was the reason of his being confounded with the 
earlier prophet). The later Jews thought he was the same as 
the Isaiah of Hezekiah’s time; but we know from his writings 
that he lived in the latter part of the Exile. About him we 
may say: 1. His style is marked by loftiness of imagination; 
more than any other prophet he maintains his thought in the 
region of the poetic and the ideal. 2. He looks to the speedy 
restoration of his people to their own land. He speaks of the 
great Persian king, Cyrus, as having already conquered many 
nations, and as now approaching Babylon, and calls him ‘ right- 
eous,’’ and Yahwe’s “ shepherd,’’ and ‘‘ anointed one’? (xli. 2, 
xliv. 28, xlv. 1-4); by him the Chaldeans (Babylonians) shall 
be destroyed, and Israel sent back to worship Yahwe in Jerusa- 
lem (xlvii. 1, lii. 1-12). 3. He has little to say about temple 
and sacrifices. He rather describes Israel as the ‘‘ servant of 
Yahwe,’’ chastened by captivity that it may more perfectly 
perform the divine will in enlightening and saving the other 
nations. See xli. 8, xlii. 1-4, 19, xliv. 1-8, xlix. 1-3. In one 
or two places he speaks of the pious of Israel as atoning by their 
suffering for the sins of their own people and of other nations; 


82 THE HISTORY OF THE 


so in xlix. 6 and the section from lii. 13 to the end of liii. 
This last passage, particularly chapter liii., is a beautiful de- 
scription of an innocent person suffering for others. The 
prophet is speaking of the pious people of Israel, the spiritual 
kernel of the nation; but it is true of all God’s servants, and 
particularly of Jesus, to whom it is applied in the New Testa- 
ment (Acts viii. 32, 33). He was in a special sense the “ ser- 
vant of the Lord” (see Luke iv. 17-21). 4. It is hard to give 
an outline of the prophet’s thought. His book is one continued 
strain (with here and there a slight exception) of splendid por- 
traiture of Israel’s coming glory through its knowledge of 
Yahwe. He ridicules idolatry (xl. 18-20, xliv. 9-20; and com- 
pare Ps. exv. 4-8), but he has nothing to say against any foreign 
nation but Babylon. 


4 Other Exilian Writings. — About this time also were 
probably written the following prophecies: Is. xiii., xiv. 1-27, 
xxxiy., xxxv., Jer. l., li.; and several of the Psalms, such as 
xiy. (and liii., which is the same thing), cxxx., cxxxvil., and 
perhaps li. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the Exile in general: the histories of Israel, and par- 
ticularly Ewald’s. 

2. On Ezekiel: articles in encyclopedias and commentaries, 
particularly Smend’s (in the ‘‘ Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Hand- 
buch ”). 

3. On Isaiah II.: Ewald’s ‘ Prophets,’? commentaries of 
Knobel and Cheyne; article in Encycl. Brit.; Matthew Arnold 
has printed an excellent little edition of the prophecy, with 
brief notes, London, 1872. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What became of the first Israelitish captives in Assyria?— what of 
the later Judean captives in Babylon? Did they suffer? Were their con- 
querors unkind to them? Did they make homes for themselves in Babylon? 
What advice did Jeremiah give them? What did he believe in reference to 
them? Were they all good? From what source shall we learn something of 
\ their religious ideas? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 83 


2. What is our source of information about Ezekiel? When was he 
carried away to Mesopotamia? When did he begin to prophesy? What 
was his calling in life? Wherein was he like and wherein unlike Jeremiah? 
How did he feel toward the Babylonians? What was his character? — his 
style? Can you turn to his book and point out its divisions by chapters? 
What did he think was the object of the captivity? What did he expect for 
his people? Did this come to pass exactly according to his ideas? What 
did he draw up for the people? Did they adopt it when they returned to 
Canaan? Why not? Is his ritual as full as that of Leviticus and Numbers? 
Ts it fuller than that of Deuteronomy? What is the character of his ethical 
code? How did he feel for himself? What did he insist on? Was hea 
faithful teacher and prophet? 

3. When did the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah speak kindly of the 
Babylonians? What change took place in the circumstances? How did the 
prophets then speak of Babylon? At what time did a great anonymous 
prophet arise? What happened to his writings? Where are they now 
printed? What do we call him? What did the later Jews think of him? 
What date for him do his writings indicate? What is his style? What did 
he look to for the people? How does he speak of Cyrus? What does he call 
him? What does he expect him to do for Israel? Does he say much of 
temples and sacrifices? How does he describe Israel? What does he say 
of atoning by suffering? What chapter speaks especially of this? Is this 
true of all true servants of God? Of whom is it particularly true? Is it 
easy to give an outline of the thought of the whole prophesy? How does 
it speak of idolatry? May we suppose that Ezekiel and the Second Isaiah 
represent different sides of the ideas of the Jewish captives? Can you tell 
what the more pious and spiritual among them hoped for? [See what is 
said in the Lesson of the hopes of the two prophets. ] 

4. What other prophecies were probably written during the Exile? What 
Psalms? Why do we suppose that these were composed in Exile? [Because 
they contain references and allusions to the Exile. ] 





LESSON XVIL. 


HISTORY AND PROPHETIC WRITINGS UP TO 
THE TIME OF THE MACCABEES. 


1. Character of the Period.— We have now reached the 
priestly period of the history of the Israelitish religion. The 
great prophets had done their work; they had preached right- 


: 


84 THE HISTORY OF THE 


eousness of life and spirituality of worship. Through the guid- 
ance of God Israel had thrown off idolatry, and now, when the 
Exile was over, had come to worship one God. But now also, 
just in proportion as they honored their God, they began to wish 
for stricter rules of outward religious service. They felt that 
they must keep themselves separate from the other nations, who 
worshipped idols; and to do this they must build around them- 
selves a hedge of laws and ceremonies. This sort of service 
would of course be directed by priests. A few prophets spoke 
after the Exile; but the priests gradually got the control of 
things. It is this religious progress that we are most concerned 
with, from the return from exile to the time of the Maccabees; 
the political history is meagre and of little interest. 


2. The Return from Exile.—In the year B.c. 539 Baby- 
lon was taken and the Babylonian empire destroyed by the 
Medes and Persians under Cyrus. The new empire thus estab- 
lished by the Persians comprised the whole of western Asia, and 
Judea was one of its provinces. The Persian king was not un- 
willing to have a people friendly to him dwelling on the border 
of his empire towards Egypt; so he gave permission to the 
Jewish captives in Babylon to go back to their own land, and 
some of them accordingly went (B.c. 536). Not all of the people 
returned; perhaps the majority stayed in Babylon, not choosing 
to risk the chances of the desolate and defenceless land of Judah, 
and in Babylon their descendants dwelt for more than a thousand 
years, About 40,000 (with 7,000 servants) returned to Canaan, 
under the lead of Zerubbabel (Ezra i., ii. 64), and of these over 
4,000 were priests. Very few Levites came. Till a short while 
before, all Levites had been priests (so it is in the book of Deu- 
teronomy), but about Ezekiel’s time a distinction was made 
between them; the Levites were not permitted to offer sacri- 
fices, and were in an inferior position. Hence not many of 
them cared to go back to Canaan, where they could not expect 
positions of honor. 


3. The Building of the Temple.— We can easily under- 
stand that the returned exiles were kept busy building their 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 85 


houses, sowing their fields, and bringing their little community 
into shape. However, they did not forget the claims of religion ; 
soon after their return they set up the altar, and laid the founda- 
tions of the temple. But there were various hinderances : the 
people, hard pressed to get their daily bread (Hag. i. 6), were 
probably slack in work; and it seems that their jealous neigh- 
bors made trouble for them at the Persian court (Ezra iv. 24). 
For about sixteen years nothing was done. Then (B.C. 520) the 
prophets Haggai and Zechariah came forward with exhortations, 
the people set to work, and the new temple (called the second 
temple) was finished in the sixth year of Darius Hystaspis, 
B.c. 515. It was not as grand as Ezekiel’s, nor as splendid as 
Solomon’s; when the foundations were laid, the old men, re- 
membering the glory of the first house of Yahwe, wept in the 
midst of their rejoicing, seeing how much less was the outward 
glory of this second house (Ezra iii. 12, 13). But Haggai told 
them afterwards that the glory of the latter house should be 
greater than that of the former (Hag. ii. 9); and so it turned 
out. This handful of people had founded the new Jewish 
Church. 


4. Haggai and Zechariah. — Two prophets belong to this 
period. Of the first, Haggai, a few words have been preserved, 
spoken in the second year of Darius, B.c. 520. They are exhor- 
tations to build the temple, and promises of blessing. He seems 
to have expected political power for his people (ii. 20-23) ; but 
God had other designs. The second prophet, Zecha- 
riah, had a number of visions (B.c. 520), encouraging the people 
to build the temple, and again (B.c. 518), taught them that they 
were not to fast in commemoration of the capture of the city 
(chapter vii.), but to be righteous in their lives, and hope for 
God’s blessing (viii.). Only chapters i.—viii. of this book are 
the production of this prophet, the contemporary of Haggai; 
chapters ix.-xiv. belong to a different time. 


5. The History up to the Maccabees. — After the building 
of the temple, the Jews in Canaan seem to have gone on quietly 
for a number of years, under Persian governors; we have no 


\ 


86 THE HISTORY OF THE 


account of this period. But their religion moved steadily for- 
ward. Those Jews who had stayed in Babylonia had been study- 
ing the law, and about B.c. 457 one of them, named Ezra, came 
over to Judea and introduced or gave a great impulse to this study 
among the people. His efforts were seconded by Nehemiah, who 
about B.c. 444 was sent over by the Persian king to be governor. 
Nehemiah also built the walls of Jerusalem, and decidedly 
strengthened the feeble little nation. See the interesting ac- 
count of all this in his book, and in Ezra vii.-x. After this the 
Jewish political history is a blank for almost 300 years; there 
are no reliable records relating to it. Judea remained a prov- 
ince of the Persian empire till its overthrow by Alexander the 
Great (B.c. 332), and then came into the hands of the Greeks. 
For many years it was a bone of contention between the Greek 
kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, but finally came into the posses- 
sion of the latter (B.c. 198). Then followed soon the Maccabean 
struggle (Lesson XX.). Meanwhile several important 
events had occurred. 1. Nearly the whole of Canaan, or, as it was 
afterwards called, Palestine, was filled up by Jews; and a good 
many foreigners likewise came to live in it. 2. On the other 
hand, the Jews began to settle in all the countries of the Greek 


and Roman world, where they became very prosperous. They — 


were especially numerous and influential in Egypt. They even 
built a temple there, at a place called Leontopolis in Heliopolis, 
but this did not amount to much; all over the world the Jews 
remained faithful to the temple at Jerusalem. More important 
was the Greek translation of the Old Testament which the 
Alexandrian Jews began about B.c. 275 and finished about B.c. 
100. This is what is now called the Septuagint; it is a great 
help in the study of the Old Testament. 3. The Samaritans 
(see Lesson XI.) gradually came to be a distinct religious com- 
munity. They built a temple on Mount Gerizim (Dett. xxvii. 
12), and kept up a worship of the one God independent of Jeru- 
salem (John iv. 20). They also had a copy of the Pentateuch, 


the text of which has been preserved. 4. The Jews seem to have - 


accepted certain religious ideas from the Persians, and to have 
developed certain of their own ideas under Persian influence. 
For example, the doctrine of angels becomes distincter in this 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 87 


period, and the idea of guardian angels, found in the books of 
Daniel and Tobit, is very much like that of the Persians. Pos- 
sibly also it was under Persian influence that the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body was acquired. 5. During this period 
synagogues were established (see Lesson XXIV.). 


6. Malachi, Joel, Zechariah II, Zechariah III.— We can 
barely mention the prophets of this period. Malachi (about 
B.c. 420) may be called a legal prophet; he rebukes the people 
for their failure to fulfil the requirements of the temple-service. 
Joel probably lived early in the Greek period. On the occasion 
of a great plague of locusts (iii. 27) he predicted the outpour- 
ing of God’s spirit on all flesh (ii. 28-32; see Acts ii. 16-21), and 
announced a judgment of the nations (iii.). Not far from this 
time belongs the prophecy contained in Zech. xii.-xiv., which 
predicts the triumph of Yahwe’s worship at J erusalem. The date 
of Zech. ix.—xi. is uncertain, but it also seems to belong to the 
Greek period, perhaps about B.c. 300. It speaks of Israel’s suffer- 
ing and future restoration to prosperity. All these prophets taught 
that holiness of life, in obedience to God, and with faith in him, 
would bring blessing to the people; and the blessing did really 
come, not in the shape of political independence and power, but in 
the person of the Great Teacher whom God raised up out of Israel. 


/ 
LITERATURE. 


1. On the history: Ewald’s ‘‘ History of Israel;”” Prideaux’s 
‘ Connection; ” Stanley’s “ Jewish Church,” vol. iii.; Reuss, 
‘¢ Geschichte des Alten Testaments,” Braunschweig, 1881. 

9. On the Septuagint: the books of Introduction and the 
ceyclopedias. 

3. On the history of the doctrines of angels and the resurrec- 
tion: Nicolas, ‘‘ Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs;”’ articles in 
Herzog, Schenkel, Encyclopedia Britannica; histories of Ewald 
and others. 

4. On the prophets: the commentaries on the Minor 
Prophets; articles in Encyclopedia Britannica. On Zech. ix.— 
xiy., Stade in the “Zeitschrift fur Alttestamentliche Wissen- 
schaft.”” 


88 THE HISTORY OF THE 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What period have we now reached ? What had the prophets preached ? 
What had Israel done? What did they now wish? Why should they keep 
themselves separate from other nations? How could they do this? Who 
would have the control of this service? With what are we concerned in 
this period ? 

2. When and by whom was Babylon taken? What was the extent of 
the Persian empire? Why was the Persian king willing that the Jews 
should return to their land? When did they go back? Didall go? Why 
not ? How many returned? How many of these were priests? Why did 
more priests than Levites return ? 

3. How were the returned exiles at first employed? Did they forget the 
claims of religion ? What did they do? What hinderances were in their 
way? When did the two prophets come forward? When was the tem- 
ple finished? Why did the old men weep? What did Haggai say? What 
had this handful of people founded ? 

4. When did Haggai prophesy? What does he say? What did he ex- 
pect ? What was the object of Zechariah’s visions? What else did he 
teach? What part of the book called Zechariah belongs to this time ? 

5. After the building of the temple, what was the condition of the Jews? 
Did their religion go forward? What Jews had been studying the law? 
Who came to Judea? When? Whence? For what purpose? Who 
seconded his efforts? What did he do? What of the history for the next 
three hundred years ? Into whose hands did Judea finally fall? Mention an 
important event that occurred during this period ? Mention another? 
Where were the Jews especially numerous? What did they build? 
Did it amount to much? What translation did they make? When? 
What third event occurred ? What didthey build? What book had they ? 
Under what influence do the Jews seem at this time to have attained new 
religious ideas ? What doctrines now first clearly appear? What religious 
gatherings now came into use ? 

6. When did Joel probably live ? Can you point out the divisions of his 
book? Who quotes him in the New Testament ? Has God’s spirit been 
poured out-on all men? What is the date of Zech. xii.—xiv.? What does 
it predict ? The date of Malachi? For what does he rebuke the people ? 
Of what does Zech. ix.—xi. speak ? Do we know its date certainly ? What 
did all these prophets teach ? How has the blessing come ? . 


ie. 
—. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 89 


LESSON XVIII 


EZRA’S REFORM, AND THE PENTATEUCH. 


We must go back, and look for a moment at the great relig- 
ious movement which is connected with the name of Ezra. We 
shall have to ask what it is that he did, and how the Pentateuch 
came to haye its present form. This is the starting-point of 
the Judaism of Christ’s time. 


1. Progress of Legal and Priestly Ideas. — It was a long 
time before the Israelites built up their great Law, which we now 
have in the Pentateuch. At first they got on without written 
law. Their judges and kings governed according to their own 
notions of right. The priests offered sacrifices all over the land 
according to customs that had been handed down from genera- 
tion to generation. Gradually, as society became better organ- 
ized, the religious laws or rules were more accurately defined, and. 
the priests, who carried out these laws, became more and more 
influential. Small collections of laws were made by pious men. 
As the devotion to Yahwe, God of Israel, increased, the necessity 
for a formal worship according to rule was more deeply felt. 
This feeling was strengthened during the Exile, when the more 
thoughtful Israelites began to reflect on the condition of the 
nation. What is it, they asked, that we want? And the 
answer was: We want a law, which shall keep us near Yahwe, 
and separate us from the other nations. So they began to 
gather up all the old laws, and make new ones, and write them 
down. And of course, along with this, the priests became very 
important persons. At last, indeed, they became the most 
powerful class in the nation; the more that the political inde- 
pendence of the people was lost. The nation came to be priest- _ 
ridden. Yet it is probable that the priests and others who 
made these laws wished to train the people to be holy, so that 
they might have the blessing of the holy Yahwe. 


2. What Ezra did. — Ezra lived at the time when the col- . 
lection of religious laws was very nearly completed. As we have 


90 THE HISTORY OF THE 


seen, it was the Jews in Babylonia who were particularly zealous 
in this legal study; those who had returned to Palestine were 
so busy with the bodily labors of a new settlement that they had 
little time for study of any sort, but the Babylonian Jews had 
leisure to think and write. Among them Ezra had learned the 
law. No doubt he was surprised and shocked when he heard 
from occasional visitors that his brethren in Palestine were not 
living according to its prescriptions. So he determined to go 
and teach them, and accordingly got permission from the Per- 
sian king (Artaxerxes Longimanus), came to Jerusalem, and 
began his work. With the aid of Nehemiah he seems to have 
succeeded in inducing the people to obey certain rules of the 
law, such as not marrying foreign wives, and keeping the sab- 
bath and the great festivals. He was a reformer, something 
like Luther. He began a new phase of Jewish life. Exactly 
how long he worked, and how much he accomplished in his life- 
time, we don’t know; but from his time it was that the Jews 
became ‘the people of the book.” We must describe this 
book. 


3. Formation of the Pentateuch. —In those days (before 
Ezra’s time) the Israelites had no Bible, no collection of sacred 
books, which they regarded as having been given them by God. 
Hereafter (Lesson XXIII.) we shall see how their Scriptures 
(our Old Testament) were gradually gathered together. It was 
in Ezra’s time that this collecting began. We do not know 
that he himself gathered the laws into a book, —it is more prob- 
able that this process had been going on for some time in Baby- 
lonia, and that he was only one out of many workers, per- 
haps a very able and important one. He may have edited, 
as we now say, almost all of the Pentateuch. Let us look 
awhile at this book. The word ‘ Pentateuch”’ (a Greek 
word, invented long afterwards in Alexandria) means “the 
fivefold book,’’ that is, the great work which contains the 
five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- 
teronomy. The Jews regarded it as the book, the Tora 
(instruction or law), the foundation and essence of their relig- 
ion. But these five books were not written all at once; their 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 91 


composition extended over several centuries. From time to 
time the traditions of the early times (Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob) were committed to writing; this began as early as B.c. 
800, or perhaps earlier. Then the accounts of the creation and 
the first fortunes of the human race were probably learned from 
the Babylonians during the Exile, and all these stories were put 
together to form the book of Genesis. Similar traditions con- 
cerning the march from Egypt through the wilderness to Canaan 
constitute the historical part of Exodus and Numbers. At the 
same time collections of law were being made. About B.c. 750 
or 800 some man wrote down a little law book, including in it the 
chief civil and religious laws of that time. More than a century 
later (B.c. 622) the legal part of Deuteronomy was composed. 
After this other usages came into existence, and were set down 
in books. As the ideas of the temple-worship expanded, the 
priests would make new prescriptions. So, finally, the books of 
Leviticus and Numbers and the account of the tabernacle in 
Exodus were written. Then some one, perhaps Ezra, brought 
all this material together, and the Pentateuch was formed. And, 
inasmuch as Moses was looked on as the great lawgiver, all of 
it was ascribed to him; that is, it was declared to be all the 
word of God; and, indeed, it was believed by the priests to be 
necessary to the holiness and happiness of Yahwe’s people, 
Tsrael. Many of these ceremonial laws are curious, and deserve 
study. They were, no doubt, beneficial in their time; but they 
are of no religious use now; they were superseded by the prin- 
ciples that Jesus taught. 


4. Character of the Pentateuch.— The Pentateuch may 
almost be said to be an epitome of the religious history of 
ancient Israel. Some of its narratives (not traditions, but 
probably reliable history) go back to B.c. 1000 or 1200, or even 
earlier. Some of its customs and laws are equally old. On the 
other hand, it contains laws and perhaps narrations which came 
into existence after the Exile, as late as the middle of the fifth 
century B.c. Its growth is parallel to that of the nation. It is 
the Israelitish Thesaurus, or Treasury of Traditions and Laws. 
Each narrative or collection of laws bears the impress of the 


92 THE HISTORY OF THE 


age in which it originated; the whole is a panorama of the 
religion of Israel. Careful examination of the Penta- 
teuch shows that its different parts are distinguished by the use 
of different divine names, some haying Elohim (‘* God”? in the 
English version), others. Yahwe (Tue Lorp in the English ver- 
sion); see Gen. i., ii., ili., and iv. The Yahwe-parts are the 
older; the Elohim-portions were written after the people began 
to drop the local, national name of the deity, and adopt the 
general designation ‘‘God.’’ The history of the Flood, for 
example (Gen. vi.-ix.), is made up from two distinct narratives. 
On looking at it you will see that sometimes ‘‘ God” and some- 
times ‘‘ The Lord ”’ is used, and there are other differences cor- 
responding to these. Thus in chapter vi., verses 11-13 describe 
the same thing as verses 5-7 (in verse 5 instead of Gop read Tur 
Lorp); vii. 1-5 goes over the same ground as yi. 14-22. 

From this time on the religious history of the Jews is insepar- 
ably connected with the Pentateuch. From it they draw their 
inspiration of mind and soul; it furnishes their sae nay v4 as 
well as their religion. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Ezra and his works: the commentaries and diction- 
aries. His legendary Bes is given in Fourth Esdras (Second 
Ezra). 

2. On the origin and eonseatide of the Pentateuch: the 
Introductions of DeWette-Schrader and Bleek—Wellhausen; 
articles ‘‘ Bible ’’ and ‘‘ Pentateuch ”’ and articles on the several 
books of the Pentateuch in the Encyclopedia Britannica. 


QUESTIONS. 


To what point must we now go back? What shall we have to ask ? 

1. How did the Israelites get on before they had a written law? What 
happened as society became better organized? As devotion to Yahwe in- 
creased, what was more strongly felt? How was this feeling strengthened ? 
What did the more thoughtful men think they wanted ? What did they 
begin to do? Who then became important? What is meant by being 
priest-ridden ? Did the priests have a good motive in what they did? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 93 


2. At what time did Ezra live? What Jews were particularly zealous 
in the study of the law? Why not those of Palestine? What was Ezra 
surprised to hear? What did he do? Did he succeed in his attempt? 
Was he a reformer? Like whom? Do we know exactly what he accom- 
plished in his life-time ?_ What was true of the Jews from his time ? 

3. Had the Jews a Bible before Ezra’s time? What do you mean by 
a Bible? When did the collecting of the Scriptures begin? Was it he who 
collected them? What may he have done? What is the meaning of the 
word Pentateuch? What books does it comprise? How did the Jews 
regard it? Were these books all written at once? Can you tell how the 
book of Genesis arose? — the historical part of Exodus and Numbers? 
When was the first collection of laws made, so far as we know? What fol- 
lowed next? What then? What books came thus to be written? How 
was the Pentateuch then formed? To whom was it ascribed? Why? 
What did this signify? What did the priests believe? What may be 
said of the ceremonial laws ? 

4, What may the Pentateuch be said to be? How early are some of 
its narratives and laws? How late are others? What would you say of 
its growth? What is meant by calling it a thesaurus ? In what sense is 
ita panorama? How are its different parts distinguished ? What are the 
two divine names? Which parts are the older? What example can you 
give of a narrative made out of two other narratives? From this time what 
is true of the religious history of the Jews? 





LESSON XIX 


LITERATURE OF THE EZRA PERIOD. 


The Period of Ezra.— For several hundred years after the 
Restoration (the return to Canaan) the Jews of Babylonia and 
Palestine were chiefly occupied with working out their Law ; 
their religious mission was to fix the rules of religious life which 
they believed had been divinely revealed to them. Ezra and 
his friends, as we have seen, composed the Pentateuch ; and his 
disciples after him for two hundred years continued to study it 
zealously. We may therefore call this period (say B.c. 500-250) 
by his name. Besides the prophets already mentioned (Lesson 
XVII.) this period produced several interesting books of which 
we must now say a word. 


94 THE HISTORY OF THE 


1. The Book of Chronicles. — The book of Chronicles is a 
history of Judah, composed or finished about B.c. 300. As 
early as the middle of the Exile there had been written a history 
of the whole nation, from the time of the Judges down to the 
carrying away to Babylon ; this history is given in the books of 
Judges, Samuel, and Kings (see Lesson XV.). But it was com- 
posed before the final Pentateuchal legislation ; it breathes the 
spirit of the prophets and the book of Deuteronomy, that is, it 
lays little stress on the ceremonial law. But a change had now 
come over the nation. The temple-ritual had been introduced. 
All the details of the service, such as the offerings and the sing- 
ing, were now thought to be very important. Naturally those 
who had become used to these things supposed that they had 
always existed. It was equally natural to wish to have a history 
of the temple from the beginning. So, after a while, some pious 
priest or Levite sat down to compose a history of the kingdom 
of Jerusalem, in which the temple was situated. This history 
(our book of Chronicles) goes over the same ground as Second 
€amuel and Kings. But it leaves out much that they have, and 
puts in much that they have not. It leaves out a good deal of 
the political and personal history ; it puts in a great deal relat- 
ing to the temple-service. The author cites older writings ; but 
he filis up the picture according to his own ideas. Thus the 
book is not valuable as a history of the kingdom of Judah ; we 
cannot usually rely on it where it differs from Samuel and 
Kings. But it is very valuable as an exposition of the ideas of 
the author’s own time. It shows us that some of the Jews then 
attached more importance to temple-ceremonies than to any 
other part of religion. 


2. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. — The books of Ezra 
and Nehemiah formed originally one book, and were, moreover, 
a part or a continuation of Chronicles. It brings the history 
down to the Exile and mentions the Restoration ; they begin 
with the Restoration, and come down to the end of Nehemiah’s 
government (about B.c. 430) ; they also give a list of priests 
down to the time of Alexander the Great (Neh. xii. 10, 11). 
Their object is to describe the building of the second temple, 


s 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 95 


and the enforcement of the Law by Ezra and Nehemiah. This 
was, in fact, the introduction of the complete ceremonial law. It 
was the founding of the new Jewish Church. 


3. The Book of Jonah. — In contrast with this legal litera- 
ture is another work, which may be assigned to this period, 
though its exact date is uncertain. The story of the book of 
Jonah is familiar to us all. The prophet is sent to preach the 
wrath of God to the great city of Nineveh. The people repent 
and God pardons them. At this the prophet murmurs ; but 
God teaches him that it is right to be merciful even to the 
heathen. Thus, while the legalists were building a wall of 
ceremonies between Israel and the other nations, the unknown 
author of this little book taught that God’s mercy is not 
bounded by national lines. It is a teaching worthy of the 
New Testament (see Matt. xii. 41). The hero of the story 
is the prophet of the time of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xiv. 
25), but the book is a religious apologue composed long after 
this. Its religious value is independent of the adventures in 
chapter i. 


4. The Book of Esther. — The book of Esther was written 
to give an account of the Jewish feast of Purim, which is still 
celebrated on the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar (about 
the first of March). It is referred to in 2 Maccabees xv. 36, 
under the name of the day of Mardocheus (Mordecai). This feast 
commemorates a deliverance of the Jews from a Persian perse- 
cutor, and is highly valued by them. But the book breathes no 
pure religious spirit ; it contains nothing but hatred and revenge. 
The name of God does not occur in it, and it says nothing of 
prayer. It is merely a record of national feeling. To make up 
for its religious deficiencies, some chapters containing prayers 
were afterwards added to it ; these are found in the Greek ver- 
sion, but not in the Hebrew. The story is laid in the time of 
the Persian king Xerxes (Ahasuerus). It is hardly reliable 
history. 


5. The Book of Job. —Itis probably to this period (though 
it may be a hundred years earlier) that we are to assign a re- 


96 THE HISTORY OF THE 


markable book (Job), which introduces us to a new species of 
literature and a new phase of Israelitish thought. Israel had 
not only prophets, who preached trust in and obedience to Israel’s 
holy God, and priests, who directed his worship in the temples, 
but also wise men or sages, who studied philosophy. By phil- 
osophy we mean the explanation of man’s soul, of human life, 
and of the world. The Israelitish philosophers seem to have 
confined themselves at first to giving short descriptions of facts 
of life, and rules for its guidance, in the form of apothegms or 
proverbs (see Lessons XXI. and XXII.). Afterwards they dis- 
cussed wider questions, and especially whether goodness is 
always rewarded with outward prosperity in this world. The 
great mystery was that sometimes good men seem to suffer, and 
bad men to be prosperous and happy ; how could a holy God 
permit this? For a long time the sages explained this by say- 
ing that good men were always eventually rewarded and bad 
men always came to a bad end (see, for example, Ps. lxxiii.). 
Nobody said anything of a future life ; on this point the ancient 
Israelites had very dim ideas. But this explanation 
was not satisfactory to all thinkers ; it is, in fact, not true. It 
did not satisfy the author of the book of Job, and he looks for 
some other solution. The plan of the book is this. A rich and 
powerful sheikh or pastoral prince is suddenly overwhelmed with 
misfortunes ; he loses his property and his children, and is 
afflicted with loathsome leprosy. Three of his friends come to 
condole with him (chaptersi., ii.). Then they fall to discussing 
his case, — why was he thus stricken ? The three friends give 
the old explanation : it was, they said, because he had been a 
great sinner, and this suffering was the just punishment of his 
sins. He answered that he was not a great sinner; that he had, 
on the contrary, been upright, and that he would prove it, if he 
could only see God, and plead his cause face to face. Finally, 
however, he affirmed his confidence in God (jii.-xxxi.). Then, 
in the original form of the poem, followed the address of Yahwe 
(xxxviii—xli.), in which he sets forth his power, and leaves Job 
to infer that he is to submit to God’s providences without being 
able to understand them. And at the end, Job regains pros- 
perity and happiness (xlii.). Afterwards an addition was made 


\ 


f RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 97 


to the argument; another speaker (Elihu) was introduced, who 
affirmed that the object of suffering is to make men better (xxxii. 
-xxxvii.). So the argument of the book is not conclusive; but it 
contains noble religious sentiments (especially emphasizing trust 
in God), and it shows us how earnestly one part of Israel were at 
this time seeking to know the ways of God with men. God spoke 
to his people and to us no less through the sages than through 
the prophets and the priests. The book of Job is one of the most 
splendid poetical productions of the world. The narrative por- 
tion (chapters i., ii., xlii.) is only a frame-work for the relig- 
ious argument. There may have been a man named Job who 
suffered great misfortunes; but the scenes in which Satan ap- 
pears, and the speeches of Job and his friends and of Yahwe, 
are the invention of the author of the book. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Chronicles: see Lesson VII. The works on Intro- 
duction may be consulted for all books. 

2. On Ezra and Nehemiah: Bertheau’s Commentary, and 
articles in encyclopedias and dictionaries. 

3. On Jonah: the commentaries on the Minor Prophets, 

_and the books on Prophecy. 

4, On Esther: ‘‘ Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch ;’’ 
articles in cyclopedias. 

5. On Job: commentaries of Delitzsch, Merx, Cox, Lange; 
articles in cyclopedias; W. H. Green’s ‘‘Book of Job;”’ 
Renan’s French translation; Froude, ‘‘ Short Studies,’’ I. 


QUESTIONS. 


How were the Jews of Babylonia and Palestine occupied after the Restora- 
tion? What was their mission? What did Ezra and his friends and dis- 
ciples do? Why may we call this the Ezra period? What is its date? 
What books were then written ? | 

1. What is the book of Chronicles ? About when was it written 2? What 
history of the whole nation was before this in existence ? What spirit did 
it breathe ? What change had now come over the people? What did those 
who had been used to these things think? What did they wish? What 

7 


98 THE HISTORY OF THE 


did a priest or Levite do? Over what ground does this history go? What 
does it leave out? What does it putin? What does the author do? Is 
the book valuable as a history of the kingdom of Judah ? How is it valu- 
able 2 What does it show ? 

2. What is the relation of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to Chronicles ? 
Where does Chronicles end 2 Where do Ezra and Nehemiah begin ? [Com- 
pare 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23, with Ezra i. 1-3.] What list of priests do they 
give ? What is their object 2 What was this in fact ? 

3. What book stands in contrast with this legal literature? What is the 
story of the book? What did its author teach? Is this worthy of the 
New Testament? Who is the hero of the story ? Was the book composed 
by him? Of what is its religious value independent ? Can you explain 
what you mean by this ? 

4. For what purpose was the book of Esther written ? Where is this 
feast mentioned ? What was it intended to commemorate? What is its 
spirit ? What does not occur in it? How did this happen? [The author 
was thinking wholly of the event he was describing, as a national triumph. ] 
What were afterwards added to it? Where are these found ?. In what time 
is the story laid? Is it reliable history ? 

5. What other book is probably to be assigned to this period ? Does it 
belong to a different sort of literature from that we have been considering ? 
What writers did Israel have besides priests and prophets? What did the 
prophets do ?—the priests ? What did the sages study ? What is philoso- 
phy ? To what did the Israelitish philosophers at first confine themselves ? 
What question particularly did they afterwards discyss 2 What was the 
great mystery to them? How did they explain it fora long time ? In what 
Psalm is the explanation given? [Read the Psalm.] Did they speak of a 
future life? Why not? [We shall see how they gradually got clearer 
ideas.] Was this explanation satisfactory to all persons ? Did it satisfy the 
author of the book of Job? Do we know who he was? [No.] What is 
the plan of the book ? Can you point out the divisions by chapters ? Does 
the b-ok after all explain why good men sometimes suffer, and bad men are 
sometimes prosperous ? Can you explain this? What does the book con- 
tain? What does it show us? How did God speak to his people? What 
is to be said of the book of Job as poetry ? What of the narrative portion ? 
Was there a man named Job ? What parts of the book are the composition 
of the author ? 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 99 


LESSON XxX. 


* 
THE HASMONEANS. 


The Struggle for Freedom. — In a former Lesson (XVII.) 
we have followed the political history down to the point where 
Judea fell under the control of the Greek kingdom of Syria. 
We must now describe the Jews’ struggle for freedom, and the 
fortunes of the native dynasty that thence arose ; it is a time of 
splendid heroism, when for one brief moment the national life 
flamed out gloriously before it sank forever under the iron power 
of Rome. 


1. Antiochus Epiphanes.— While the successors of Alex- 
ander had been quarrelling among themselves over his empire, 
_ the Roman republic had been slowly gathering strength, and 
now, having conquered its neighbors in Europe, had begun to 
interfere in the affairs of western Asia. It acted as arbiter and 
judge between rival powers. However, it did not always inter- 
fere in the internal management of the various kingdoms. It 
allowed Syria to govern Judea ; and after a while the Jews re- 
belled against Syrian oppression. It happened in this way. In 
the year 175 B.c. Antiochus IV., called Epiphanes (the illus- 
trious), ascended the throne of Syria. He was a man not with- 
out military skill and administrative capacity, but extravagant, 
inordinately ambitious, cruel, and bent on carrying out his plans 
without regard to the rights or comfort of others. Vexed at the 
failure of one of his attacks on Egypt (when the Romans inter- 
fered and stopped him), he vented his anger on the Jews, many 
of whom he put to death. Finally he determined to force them 
to give up their own religion, and adopt his. He carried off the 
sacred vessels of the temple, and built an altar to Zeus (Jupiter) 
on the altar of burnt offering in the temple-court; he caused 
swine’s flesh to be sacrificed in the sacred place; he forbade the 
people to circumcise their children; and he tried to destroy the 
sacred books. The Jews bore loss of property and of life; but 
they could not give up the religion of their fathers. They re- 
volted. 


100 THE HISTORY OF THE 


2. The Two Jewish Parties. = But not all the people 
opposed the designs of the Syrian king. They were divided in- 
to two parties, one of which was favorable to foreign ideas, while 
the other was bitterly hostile to them. The former was the 
Hellenizing party ; those who belonged to it adopted Grecian 
names, introduced games and gymnasiums, and tried to be as 
much like Greeks as possible. The other was the national party, 
who believed in holding to the customs of their forefathers ; 
they were also called the Hasidim, that is, the Pious. We see 
it was a dispute very much like that between the prophets and 
the Baal-worshippers long before (Lesson [X.). The Helleniz- 
ing party aided Antiochus in his designs, and the Samaritans 
sent word to him that they were unconnected with and hostile 
to the Jews. 


3. The War of Freedom.— The national party were de- 
termined to resist the king. War was brought on, very much 
as in the American Revolution (battle of Lexington). One day 
a Syrian (Greek) officer came to a little place called Modin to 
set up the Grecian worship there. An old priest named Matta- 
thias slew him, and then fled with his friends to the wilderness. 
Here, aided by his five valiant sons, he kept up a war against 
the Syrians. After his death his son Judas became the leader 
of the national party. He is the hero of the war. Fertile in 
invention, able in action, with a courage that nothing could 
daunt, ardently devoted to the religion of Israel, he was the idol 
of the patriots, and the saviour of his country. Over and over 
again he defeated large bodies of Syrians with a handful of 
troops. He recovered Jerusalem, and purged the temple of 
idols. Meantime King Antiochus died, and in December, 164 
B.c., the temple was dedicated anew to the God of Israel, and a 
feast instituted in commemoration of the happy event. This 
was the Feast of the Dedication of which we read in the New 
Testament (John x. 22). From his bravery Judas received the 
name of Maccabzeus (which perhaps means ‘‘ the hammer’’), and 
his family are thence called the Maccabees, and this period the 
Maccabean age. He fell in battle, and was succeeded by his 
brothers Jonathan-and Simon. The latter was a wise and good 
man ; under him the Syrians made a treaty with the Jews, and 


all il 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 101 


ne sent an embassy to Rome, which was favorably received. 
The independence of the nation was now established; Simon 
became the chief political and religious officer (prince and high- 
priest). 


4. The Hasmonean Dynasty.— Thus was established a 
native Judean dynasty of priest-princes. They were called Has- 
moneans (or Asmoneans), the origin of which name is uncertain. 
Simon died s.c. 135. His son, John Hyrcanus I., conquered 
the Idumeans (Edom), and destroyed the Samaritan temple on 
Mount Gerizim. John’s son Aristobulus is said by Josephus to 
be the first of the line who assumed the title of king. Now 
began tuc decline of the little kingdom. After Aristobulus came 
his brother, Alexander Jannzus, whose sons, Hyrcanus and Aris- 
tobulus, after his death disputed the crown between them. The 
Romans interfered, and Pompey captured Jerusalem (s.c. 64), 
but did not hold it. Finally Julius Cesar took the kingdom 
from the Jewish princes, and made the Idumean Antipater 
procurator or governor; this Antipater had been the minister 
or chief adviser of King John Hyrcanus II.; we shall hear more 
of his son Herod. So ended the Hasmonean dynasty. 


5. The Three Sects or Parties.— During this period 
arose the sects or parties of the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and 
the Essenes, the two first of which are often spoken of in the 
Gospels. The significations of these names are not well under- 
stood. The Sadducees were the rich and aristocratic people, 
who were in favor of maintaining the national life, but at the 
same time adopting the culture of the Greeks ; many of the 
priests. belonged to this party. The Pharisees were the strict, 
exclusive national party. They hated foreigners and foreign 
ideas. They made much of the ceremonial part of religion, and 
of the traditional explanations of the Law that had been slowly 
growing up. The Essenes were given to ascetic observances. 
They lived in separate communities, held all property in com- 
mon, did not marry, and spent all their time in religious acts, 
such as bathing, reading the Scriptures, praying, and meditating. 


102 THE HISTORY OF THE 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the history: The first and second books of Macca- 
bees, of which the first is the more reliable ; Josephus’s Antiq- 
uities ; the histories of Ewald, Milman, Stanley, Graetz, and E. 
H. Palmer, London, 1874 ; Condor’s “ Judas Maccabzeus ;” Jost, 
‘*Geschichte des Judenthums,”’ books i and ii., Leipzig, 1857; 
Schneckenburger’s ‘‘ Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte,’’ Frank- 
fort, 1862 ; and similar works by Hausrath, Heidelberg, 1868, 
and Schiirer, Leipzig, 1874. 

2. On the parties: thesame works ; Wellhausen, ‘‘ Phari- 
sier und Sadducier,”’? Greifswald, 1874; A. Geiger, “ Das 
Judenthum und seine Geschichte,’’ Breslau, 1865 ; articles in 
cyclopedias. 


QUESTIONS. 


How far have we followed the political history? What is now to be de- 
scribed? What was the character of the time? 

1. What people had been slowly gathering strength? What had it begun 
todo? As what did it act? Did it allow Syria to govern Judea? What 
did the Jews do? Who ascended the throne of Syria, B.c. 175? What 
was his character? When did he vent his anger on the Jews? What did he 
finally determine to do? How did he proceed? How did the Jews take 
this? 

2. Did all the people oppose the designs of Antiochus? Into what two 
parties were they divided?. What are the names of these parties? How 
did the Hellenizers act? [To Hellenize means to act like a Greek.] What 
did the national party believe in? What earlier dispute was this like? Did 
the Hellenizers aid the king? What did they tell him? 

3. What was the national party determined to do? How was war brought 
on? What happened when the officer came to Modin to set up the worship 
of Greek gods? After the death of Mattathias, who became the leader of 
the national party? What was his character? Was he often successful in 
battle? Did he recover Jerusalem? [The Syrians had taken possession of 
the city.] What feast was instituted? When? To commemorate what? 
Where is it mentioned in the New Testament? What name did Judas re- 
ceive? Why? What are his family called? What is this period called? 
Who succeeded Judas? What was the character of Simon? What did he 
accomplish? Was the nation now independent? What did Simon become? 

4. What was thus established? What were they called? When did 
Simon die? What did his son Hyrcanus do? What title did Aristobulus 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 103 


assume? In the quarreis that afterwards arose among the Jewish princes, 
what power interfered? What Roman general took Jerusalem? Whom did 
Julius Cesar make procurator? What had Antipater been? Did this end 
the Hasmonean dynasty? 

5. What three sects or parties arose during this period? Which of them 
are mentioned in the Gospels? Who were the Sadducees? — the Pharisees? 
What did they hate? What did they make much of? To what were the 
Essenes given? How did they live? How did they spend their time? 





LESSON XXI1. 


LATER LITERATURE. 1. RITUAL AND DIDACTIC. 


The Classes of the Literature. — We have described the 
literature down to the end of the fourth century B.c., the year 
300 (Lesson XIX.). We must now speak of certain books that 
were written or finished after this. Please observe in the case 
of each book whether it was wholly composed or only brought to 
completion at this time. This was a period of literary as well 
as political activity (the two frequently go together), and pro- 
duced some admirable works. We may divide the literature 
into three classes: the ritual and didactic ; the apocalyptic ; and 
the prophetic and historical. Let us begin with the first of 
these, in which we shall include Psalms, Proverbs, Hcclesiasticus 
or the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, 
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. 


1. Psalms. — The book of Psalms is the hymn-book of the 
Jewish Church ; it is the collection of sacred songs that were 
sung in the temple after the return from Babylon. These songs 
express Israel’s deepest religious feeling ; they are the cries 
of souls filled with longing after God ; they are the voice of 
God speaking in the hearts of his servants. They set forth the 
personal experience of the soul in its striving after communion 
and oneness with the Father of our spirits ; they sing of sorrow 
for sin, hope, trust, love. They belong to us and all the world ; 
though the times have changed, these old hymns continue to 
furnish us with a high and true expression of our religious emo- 


104 THE HISTORY OF THE 


tions. As to their poetical character, they are rhyth- 
mical, sonorous, sweet, in the English translation as well as in 
the Hebrew. They were sung by choirs composed of Levites and 
women. They had no musical parts except octaves; the melo- 
dies, which were very simple, have probably survived in part in 
our Gregorian chants. It is probable that some of the © 
Psalms were written as early as King Hezekiah’s time (about B.c. 
700) ; and they continued to be composed during the Exile (see 
Lesson XVI. paragraph 4), and afterwards down to and during 
the Maccabean war of freedom (Ps. xliy., Ixxiv., lbxxix. seem to 
belong to the Maccabean period). The inscriptions or titles, 
which give the authors and occasions, do not belong to the Psalms 
themselves ; they were prefixed later by editors, and are not 
reliable. Many of the Psalms are ascribed to David, but it is 
not probable that he wrote any of them. We find out their 
dates by observing what periods of the history their contents 
best agree with. From time to time collections of ex- 
isting psalms were made. Five of these books are indicated in 
our Psalter: 1. Ps. i.—xli.; 2. Ps. xlii.Ixxii.; 3. Ps. lexiii.- 
Ixxxix.; 4. Ps. xc.-cvi.; 5. Ps. evii.cl. You will find short 
doxologies at the end of each-of these books, except the last, of 
which the concluding Psalm is itself a doxology. Finally, all the 
books were gathered into one, perhaps about the year 150 B.c., 
and that is our book of Psalms. The Greek version (Sep- 
tuagint) has an additional Psalm, said to be a description by 
David of his combat with Goliath (1 Sam. xvii.), and also, 
in some copies, another later psalm-book called the Psalter of 
Solomon, inferior in tone to our Psalms (about B.c. 45). 


2. Proverbs.— In a former Lesson (XIX.) we saw the na- 
ture of the Israelitish philosophy, how it dealt with questions of 
moral and religious life. The sages were accustomed to give 
their instruction in the form of aphorisms or proyerbs ; people 
then had no books, and could more easily remember these short 
sayings. You will find such sayings in the book of Proverbs, 
chapters x.-xxx. ; chapters i—ix. and xxxi. are more connected 
discourses. There is much deep wisdom in these proverbs ; 
some good men have found it well to take one of them every day 


———— 


_— 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 105 


as a motto for the day, to think about and follow. We 
do not know exactly when they were composed or collected. It 
is said that some of them were gathered in Hezekiah’s time 
(Prov. xxv. 1). Most of them were ascribed by tradition to 
Solomon, as so many of the Psalms were ascribed to David. 
Solomon may have gathered wise men about him, and encour- 
aged them to put their views of life into the form of proverbs, 
and may himself have been a sage. Parts of our book of 
Proverbs were probably composed in the Greek period, and 
the whole was probably collected about the same time as 
the Psalms. 


3. Ecclesiasticus; or, the Wisdom of the Son of 
Sirach. — At this time the Jews were much inclined to compose 
such books. About B.c. 190 aman named Jesus gathered together 
some sayings of wise men that he had heard, and added some 
of his own ; and about sixty years later (probably B.c. 132) his 
grandson, Jesus, the son of Sirach, edited his grandfather’s work, 
probably adding something to it. This is the book that is called 
Ecclesiasticus, or sometimes simply the Son of Sirach. It is 
very much like Proverbs, but also differs somewhat from it. It 
is distinctively Jewish: it delights in the service of the temple, 
and puts Israel’s happiness in obedience to the Lord; and it con- 
fines itself to the present life. It has allusions to the customs 
of the late time in which it was written. It contains a good 
deal that is valuable. The common abbreviation of the name 
Ecclesiasticus is ‘‘ Ecclus.”” This book is not in the Hebrew 
Canon. 


4, The Wisdom of Solomon. — Of the same general nature 
is another book which was written about this time, — the Wis- 
dom of Solomon. It is a long hymn in praise of godly wisdom, 
and has many excellent precepts for the guidance of life. But 
it differs from the Son of Sirach’s work in two important respects. 
Tt is less distinctively Jewish ; indeed, it has a tinge of Greek 
thought (it was probably written in Alexandria), — a broad, phil- 
osophic tone. It speaks of Wisdom almost as if it were a person 
(very much as Proy. viii. 12-36). And, secondly, what is more 
important, it distinctly teaches that man is immortal. It is the 


106 THE HISTORY OF THE 


earliest Jewish book, so far as we know, that does this. In the 
Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the other books of 
the Old Testament, except Daniel, future existence is spoken of 
as almost non-existence. Sheol, the underworld, to which all 
men are supposed to go after death, is described as a cheerless 
place, where there is no activity and no hope. But this book 
says that ‘‘God created man to be immortal, and made him to 
be an image of his own nature’’ (ii. 23). It was only gradu- 
ally that Israel came to a clear knowledge of immortality. The 
Wisdom of Solomon is not in the Hebrew Canon. 


5. Ecclesiastes ; or, the Preacher.— The most remarkable 
of this class of works is that which is commonly called Ecclesi- 
astes (abbreviated for reference into ‘‘ Eccles.””). It is a discus- 
sion of human life, put into the mouth of King Solomon, accord- 
ing to the custom of the time, which liked to rest its wisdom on the 
authority of ancient sages. It says nothing of a future life of 
work and hope, and what it says of this life is marked by a 
complete absence of enthusiasm. The author expects nothing 
satisfactory from any human effort. Not only money and 
power, but even wisdom fails, he says, to make its possessor 
happy. Everything passes away, and man himself passes away, 
and leaves no trace behind. So, our author declares, the best 
thing to do is to enjoy such good things as the bounty of God 
gives us, and not to vex ourselves with ceaseless efforts after 
wealth and wisdom. But we are to enjoy ourselves, he says, not 
foolishly or wickedly ; we are to have the fear of God before our 
eyes and to do nothing in excess. This is, in many respects, a 
most excellent philosophy. On one side it approaches the word 
of Jesus, that we are not to harass ourselves about to-morrow 
(Matt. vi. 34). It differs from the teaching of Jesus in not 
having a warm, loving trust in God. The book was probably 
written in the second century B.c. 


6. The Song of Songs. — This is a lyric poem, apparently 
composed to praise and recommend faithful wedded love. It 
seems to belong to this period. It has been usually, but im- 
properly, treated as an allegory. 


or ow . 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 107 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the Psalms : the commentaries of Delitzsch (English 
translation), Perowne, Lange, Olshausen ; Murray’s ‘“ Origin 
of the Psalms,’’ New York, 1880 ; Noyes’s translation ; Ewald’s 
‘* Poets of the Old Covenant,’’ English translation. 

2. On Proverbs: commentaries of Delitzsch, Lange, Miller, 
Noyes. 

3. On Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon: Lange and 
the “ Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch,” on the Apocrypha. 

4. On Ecclesiastes : commentaries of Lange and the Hand- 
buch ; Renan’s translation, Paris, 1882 ; Noyes. 

5. On the Song of Songs : German translation and commen- 
tary of Graetz ; Noyes. 


QUESTIONS. 


How far down has the literature been described? In the present period 
what must be observed in the case of each book? What was the character 
of this period? Into what three classes may the literature be divided? 
What books are included in the first ? 

L What isthe book of Psalms? “What do its songs express? What 
experience do they set forth? Of what do they sing? To whom do they 
belong? What is their poetical character? How were they sung? Had 
they musical parts? What was the nature of the melodies? In what have 
they survived? How early were some of these Psalms composed? How 
long did they continue to be composed? Are the inscriptions reliable? To 
what man are many of the Psalms ascribed? Is it probable that he wrote 
any? How do we find out their dates? How many partial collections of 
Psalms do we know of ? Can you point them out in the Bible? What do 
you find at the end of each book? Will you read these doxologies? Do 
they belong to the Psalms themselves? [No: they were appended by the 
editors.] About what time were all the Psalms gathered into one book? 
What do we find in the Greek version that is not in the Hebrew and English? 

1. With what did the Israelitish philosophy deal? How did the sages 
give their instruction? Why? In what chapters of Proverbs do we find 
such sayings? Which chapters contain more connected discourses? Can 
you show this by referring to the book? What may be said of the moral and 
religious value of these Proverbs? Do we know exactly when they were 
composed and collected? In whose time were some of them said to be 
gathered? Can you read the passage that states this? To whom are most 


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108 THE HISTORY OF THE 


of them ascribed? What may Solomon have done? Were parts of this 
book probably composed late? About what time was the whole probably 
collected? 

3. Were the Jews disposed to write such books at this time? What did 
a certain Jesus do? About when did his grandson edit -his work? What is 
this work called? What book is it like? Does it also differ from Proverbs? 
Wherein is it distinctively Jewish? To what does it confine itself? Does 
Proverbs also do this? To what customs does it allude? Has it much val- 
uable ethical instruction? What is the common abbreviation of the name? 

4, What other book of the same nature was written about this time? 
What is it? In how many respects does it differ from the Son of Sirach’s 
book? What is the first of these? Where was the book written? How 
does it speak of Wisdom? What is its second difference from the Son 
of Sirach? Is inmortality clearly taught in the Old Testament except in 
the book of Daniel? How is Sheol or Hades described? What does this 
book say? Can you turn to the passage and read it? How did Israel come 
toa knowledge of immortality? Are these two books, Ecclesiasticus and the 
Wisdom of Solomon, contained in the Hebrew and English Old Testament? 
[No.] 

5. What is the most remarkable of .this class of works? Of what is it a 
discussion? Put into whose mouth? According to what custom? Does it 
speak of a future life? How does it speak of this life? What does the author 
expect from human effort? What does he say of money, power, wisdom, 
and all things? What does he think the best thing todo? How does he 
say we are to enjoy ourselves? Is this a good philosophy? Like what word 
of Jesus Christ is it? How does it differ from the teaching of Jesus? 
What is the probable date of the book? 

6. For what purpose was the Song of Songs apparently composed? Was 
it written by Solomon? [No.] To what period does it seem to belong? 
How has it usually been treated? What is an allegory ? 





LESSON XXIL 


LATER LITERATURE. 2. APOCALYPTIC. 
3. PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL. 


Character of the Apocalyptic Literature. —We come 
now to an entirely new species of literature, — the works which 
purported to give an apocalypse or revelation of the ultimate 
future. The prophets had spoken of the future, but only in 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 109 


general terms. The groundwork of their predictions was ethical 
and religious; they simply declared that Israel should dwell in 
peace, obedient to the law of the holy Yahwe; their promises of 
coming prosperity were broad, trustful inferences from the 
faithfulness of their God. But now the prophetic inspiration 
~ had vanished (Ps. lxxiv. 9). Grievous times had come upon 
Israel. The mighty nations of the world seemed to be pressing 
them to destruction. What had become, they asked, of the 
ancient promises of blessing? Had the Lord forgotten his 
people? Under these circumstances, while some pious people 
took refuge in prayer and devotion to the law, others sought to 
encourage themselves and their countrymen by painting brilliant 
pictures of the future. Usually they went back and gave a 
sketch of the history of the world, which they represented as 
grouped around Israel as the centre. The visions were repre- 
sented as appearing to some ancient seer. They are precise and 
distinct up to the time of the writer, and then become general 
and vague. Weshall here mention four of these books: Daniel, 
the Sibyl, Enoch, and Ezra. 


1. Daniel. — About the year 164 B.c., just before the death 
of Antiochus Epiphanes (Lesson XX.), an unknown writer, who 
was well acquainted with Babylonian affairs, undertook to com- 
fort his people in the gloomy condition of things that then 
existed. He supposed a seer named Daniel, living in Babylon 
during the Exile, to have a series of visions setting forth the 
history of the world from the time of the Babylonian empire 
(Nebuchadnezzar) to the end of things. He sees four kingdoms 
successively arise; these are the Babylonian, the Median, the 
Persian, and the Grecian, and under the last the Syrian (especially 
Antiochus) is particularly spoken of. Of these, the first is de- 
stroyed by the second, the second by the third, the third by the 
fourth, and the fourth by the kingdom of God, that is, Israel. 
Chapters ii. and vii. give the four kingdoms; chapters viil., ix., 
and xi. describe Syria especially. The book (written partly 
in Hebrew, and partly in Aramaic) has an elevated religious 
tone. It shows, also, au advance in dogma. It contains the 
first distinct system of angels found in the Old Testament; it 
represents the various nations as having guardian angels (x. 18, 


110 THE HISTORY OF THE 


20, 21). It has also the first mention of the resurrection (xii. 
1-3), a doctrine that seems to have been developed among the 
Jews under foreign influence. Israel added to its stores from all 
quarters. The Septuagint contains three additions to the 
Hebrew book: the story of Susanna, the prayer of Azariah and 
the Hymn of the three princes, and the stories of Bel and the 
Dragon. 


2. The Sibyl.—The ancients gave the name Sibyl to certain 
prophetesses who were supposed to predict the history of nations. 
There exists a collection of predictions of this sort (Sibylline 
Oracles), written by various authors, Jews and Christians, at 
different times, during a period of several centuries. A part 
seems to have been composed not long after the book of Daniel. 
This describes the victory of the worship of the true God over 
idolatry, the destruction of the wicked at the coming of the 
Messiah, the conversion of the nations to the service of the God 
of Israel, and the blessedness of Judah. In it we find the first 
clear statement of the doctrine of the Messiah. The prophets 
had spoken of a king or a dynasty under whom Israel would -be 
prosperous; Daniel speaks of a glorious person like a Son of 
Man (a representation of the saints of the Most High, vii. 13, 


22), to whom everlasting dominion was to be given; and the _ 


Sibyl represents the deliverer of Israel as a distinct person sent 
and commissioned by God to give victory to his people. And 
this idea of a Messiah or Christ (that is, an anointed one) was 
in existence when the true Messiah came and pointed Israel not 
to military glory, but to loving obedience to God. It is not im- 
probable that the famous description of the golden age in 
Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue was suggested by the Jewish Sibyl. 


3. Enoch.— The greater part of the book of Enoch was 
written in the second and first centuries before Christ. It rep- 
resents the old patriarch Enoch (Gen. v. 24) as having had a 
series of visions in which the coming judgment of the world was 
disclosed to him. It speaks more distinctly than Daniel of 
angels, of the Messiah, and of the last times of the world. It 
was much valued in the early centuries of our era, and is quoted 


in the New Testament book of Jude, verses 14, 15. Additions 


were perhaps made to it by Christian writers. 






RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 111 


4. Ezra.— To fill out the series we may add a work which 
treats of the history of Israel, but was written or completed by 
a Christian in the first century of our era. The visions, sup- 
posed to have been seen by the scribe Ezra, predict the overthrow 
of the nations and the triumph of the righteous. There is a 
story of Ezra’s having been inspired to write out the whole of 
the sacred books, they having been lost (xiv. 37-48). The book 
is called Fourth or Second Ezra (or, in the Greek form, Esdras). 


5. Other Works. — Various other works produced during 
this period attest the literary activity of the Jews. We can 
only mention the most important. 1. Poetical and philosophic. 
In Alexandria the Jews caught the literary spirit of the Greeks 
and wrote poetry and philosophy; that is, they tried to treat the 
material of their sacred books according to Greek methods. A 
certain Ezekiel composed a tragedy on the deliverance of Israel 
from Egypt, parts of which are preserved in the works of the 
Church Father, Eusebius. Aristobulus discussed the Pentateuch 
philosophically (see Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria). 
The ethical poem contained in the Sibylline Oracles, which was 
formerly ascribed to a Greek, Phocylides, is also by a Jew. 
These attempts were foreign to the Jewish spirit and had little 
success (see on Philo later). 2. An unknown writer composed 
a book in imitation of the ancient prophets, and ascribed it to 
Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. Another, also 
unknown, wrote a letter, purporting to be addressed by the 
prophet Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon, warning them 
against idolatry. The dates are uncertain. 3. Historical. The 
First Book of Maccabees is a history of the war of freedom from 
its outbreak to the death of Simon, the brother of Judas. It 
was composed not long after the war, and is generally reliable. 
The Second Book of Maccabees is less trustworthy. It begins 
the history farther back, in the time of the high-priest Onias, 
and comes down to the year before the death of Judas Macca- 
beus (B.c. 161). It was written some time after the First 
Book, and is designed to defend Jewish religious ideas. See 
the beautiful story of the seven brothers in chapter iv. 

The Third Book of Ezra (or Esdras) begins with King Josiah 
and the destruction of the temple by the Chaldeans, and then 


112 THE HISTORY OF THE ~- 


goes over about the same ground as the Old Testament books 
of Ezra and Nehemiah. Its author probably did not regard 
these books as canonical. It is called Third Ezra because 
Nehemiah is sometimes called Second Ezra. 4. Historical 
romances. The books of Tobit and Judith are tales designed ~ 
to impress moral and religious lessons. Tobit describes the 
fortunes of a pious Jewish family among the exiles in Nineveh. 
Judith tells how a pious and brave woman delivered her people 
from an invading army. Neither has any value as history. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Daniel: commentaries of Hitzig (‘* Kurzgefasstes 
Exegetisches Handbuch’”’) and Kranichfeld, Berlin, 1868 ; 
‘‘ Speaker’s Commentary;’’ Lenormant, ‘‘ La Divination chez 
les Chaldéens;” articles in Herzog, Schenkel, Encyclopedia 
Britannica; Noyes. 

2. On the Sibyl: editions of Friedlieb and Alexandre. 

3. On Enoch: English translations, Lawrence, Oxford, 1833, 
and Schodde, ‘‘The Book of Enoch,’? Andover, 1882; German 
translation, Dillmann, Leipzig, 1853; French translation, Migne, 
“« Dictionnaire des Apocryphes.”’ 

4. On Fourth Ezra and the other Apocalyptic books: Hilgen- 
feld, ‘‘ Jiidische Apokalyptik.”’ 

5. On Ezekiel, and other poets: Delitzsch, ‘‘ Geschichte der 
Jiidischen Poesie.”’ 

6. On Baruch, Maccabees, Third Ezra, Tobit, Judith: Grimm 
and Fritzsche on the Apocrypha (‘ Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches 
Handbuch ’’) and Lange. 


QUESTIONS. 


To what species of literature do we now come? How did the prophets 
speak of the future? What was the groundwork of their predictions? 
From what were their promises inferences? In these grievous times did the 
prophetic inspiration still exist? What Psalm speaks of this? What did 
the people ask? In what did some pious men take refuge? What did others 
seek todo? How did they represent the history of the world? To whom 
were the visions represented as appearing? When are they precise, and 
when are they vague? What four books are here mentioned ? 

1. In the year 164 8.c., what did an unknown writer undertake to do? 
What did he suppose? How many kingdoms does Daniel see? What are 
they? How are these destroyed? Can you point out the visions in the 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 113 


Bible? What is the tone of the book? Does it show a dogma or teaching 
that earlier books have not? What does it say of angels? What of the 
resurrection? Whence did the Jews probably get this doctrine? 

2. What does Sibyl mean? What book of this sort have we? By whom 
written? When was the Jewish part composed? What does it describe? 
What do we find in it? Of what had the prophets spoken? Of what does 
Daniel speak? What representation does the Sibyl give? Was the idea of 
a Messiah in existence among the Jews when Jesus of Nazareth came? To 
what did he point Israel? 

3. When was the book of Enoch written? What does it represent Enoch 
as having had? Of what does it speak more distinctly than Daniel? When 
was it much valued? Where is it quoted? Can you read the passage? By 
whom were additions made to it? 

4, When was Fourth Ezra written or completed? By whom? What do 
the visions predict? What story does the book contain? 

5. What spirit did the Jews catch in Alexandria? Have parts of their 
poetry and philosophy been preserved? Did these attempts of theirs have 
much success? Why not? What is the book of Baruch? What three his- 
torical books do we find? Of what is First Maccabees a history? Is it 
generally reliable? Is Second Maccabees equally trustworthy? What is 
its design? What beautiful story does it contain? Have you ever read the 
story? What ground does Third Ezra cover? Why is it so called? What 
is the Greek form of the name Ezra? Why is the book sometimes called 
First Esdras? What is the design of the books of Tobit and Judith? What 
does Tobit describe? What does Judith tell? 





LESSON XXIII. 


THE CANON. 


1. Definition of Canon.— The word Canon is taken from 
the Greek, and means first a ‘‘ reed,’ and then a ‘‘rule”’ by 
which things are measured. Thus it came to signify those 
writings which were conformed to the rule or measure of in- 
spiration; it is equivalent to ‘‘a collection of sacred books,’’ — 
books believed to have been given by divine inspiration. When 
a book is declared by the proper authority among a people to 
belong to the sacred collection, it is said to be ‘‘ canonized,’ and 
is called a“ canonical” book. Not a few of the Asiatic nations 
had such sacred collections ; they were those nations in whom 

8 


114 THE HISTORY OF THE 


the consciousness of the divine power and government was 
strong. Among them were the Assyrians, the Hindus, and the 
Persians; in later times the Arabs had (and still have) their 
Koran. But no ancient people had so precise a notion of a 
canon as the Jews, because to no other people was God so deep 
areality. The Jewish Canon is the Old Testament; we must 
now ask how its books were collected. The New Testament is 
the Christian Canon. The word “ testament” is an incorrect 
translation of a Greek word which properly means ‘‘ covenant.” 
The ‘‘Old Covenant” is God’s covenant or agreement with 
Israel, whereby he promises them his favor; the ‘‘ New Cove- 
nant’ is his pledge of favor through Jesus Christ. 


2. The Time before Ezra.— We have already seen that a 
large part of our Old Testament was written before Ezra’s time 
(p.c. 450). All the prophetic writings, the books of Samuel, 
Judges, and Kings, Deuteronomy, a good many of the Psalms 
and Proverbs, and perhaps other works, came into existence dur- 
ing this period. But the Israelites then had no idea of a body 
of sacred writings. These books were no doubt circulated and 
read to some extent, particularly by the priests and prophets, 
and were valued as words of Yahwe, or as helpful to religious 
life. But there was no attempt to make a separation among 
the various books that were written, and to declare some to be 
sacred and authoritative. We know that other books, besides 
those in our Old Testament, were then composed and are now 
lost. Time sifted these works, and only the more important 
were preserved. Gradually, as the ideas of religion among the 
Israelites became distincter, and as their hopes of political suc- 
cess became dimmer, their attention was fixed on the books that 
related to religion, and they began to study them more. The 
old prophetic spontaneousness died out soon after the return 
from exile, and the people lived more and more in the past, and 
therefore in the books which rested the present on the authority 
of the past. 

3. The Pentateuch.— Naturally, the first thing to which 
attention was directed was the Law. During the Exile the 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 115 


leaders of the people came to feel that it was this that most 
separated Israel from the other nations, and constituted its true 
life. The Babylonian Jews had devoted much time to collect- 
ing and completing the regulations concerning public worship 
and civil life. At that time no distinction was made between 
civil and religious law, for did not Yahwe, the God of Israel, 
order the whole conduct of his people, whether in their duty to 
him or to one another ? The lawyers were also the theologians. 
Along with the law the traditions concerning the Hebrew ances- 
tors and the first ages of the world were collected. By succes- 
sive editors all this material was at last brought together and 
shaped into one book, our Pentateuch. When and by whom 
the present division of this work into five books was made, we 
do not know. It had already been done when the Greek trans- 
lation was made, about B.c. 275. Sometimes the book of Joshua 
was added, and then the whole was called the Hexateuch (that 
is, the sixfold book). About Ezra’s time the most of the Pen- 
tateuch had been formed into a book. He was deeply convinced 
that this book should be made the nation’s rule of life. He 
came from Babylon to Jerusalem to press this fact on the people. 
His efforts, seconded by those of Nehemiah, were successful. 
He began the work, and after a while the whole people felt that 
the book of the Law was that which God had given them to be 
the guide of their life. So the Pentateuch, which contained 
the Tora or Law, became a canonical book. 


4, The Prophetical Books.—For some time the Penta- 
teuch constituted the whole Canon. Then, as the people 
continued to study their past history, the words of the prophets, 
who spoke to them of Yahwe’s threatenings and promises, 
seemed to them more and more important. These also, they 
said, are words of God to Israel. And as the historical books 
described Yahwe’s dealing with his people, and were written by 
prophetic men, these also were included in the same category. 
Thus a second canon was formed, the prophetical. The books 
of Judges, Samuel, and Kings were called the Former Prophets, 
and the prophetic books proper the Latter Prophets. The works 
of the prophets were edited or collected, not always carefully. 


~. “ et 
; 9h 
te 


116 THE HISTORY OF THE e 


Anonymous writings were put into the same manuscript with y 
some known prophet, and after a while came to be regarded as 
his. Thus the prophecy, Is. xl.-lxvi., is included in the same 
book with the Isaiah of Hezekiah’s time, though it was written 
during the Exile; and Zech. ix.—xi. and xii.—xiy. are appended to 
Zechariah’s writings, though they do not belong to him. The 
Prophets thus became canonical, but were not thought so author- 
itative as the Pentateuch. 


5. The Hagiographa.— The Law and the Prophets for a 
long time formed the Canon. Down to New Testament times 
the expression ‘‘ the law and the prophets ’’ was even used for 
the whole Old Testament; see Matt. v. 17, Luke xxiy. 27, Rom.. 
iii.21. But other religious books were written after the pro- 
phetic canon was formed. There were the Psalms, Job, Ezra, 
and the other books, which you can find for yourselves in the 
Old Testament. After a while, towards the close of the second 
century before Christ, these were gathered into a third partial 
canon. They were called by the Palestinian Jews simply 
Writings (ketubim), and by the Greek-speaking Jews Sacred 
Writings (hagiographa). But there was not perfect agreement 
among the learned Jews as to all of them. The canonical 
authority of Ezekiel, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs was 
still in dispute after the death of the Apostle Paul; but they 
were finally accepted by the Sanhedrin. The third class of 
writings was not valued so highly as the other two. The He- 
brew Bible arranges the books by the three canons or collec- 
tions: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Writings. The Greek 
and Latin versions changed the order, and our Bible follows 
them. 


6. The Alexandrian Canon. — What we have been saying 
refers to the Palestinian Jews. “Ihe Jews who lived in Egypt 
admitted into their Canon a number of other books; it is they 
that are called the Apocrypha; you will find them printed in 
some copies of the Bible. They are First and Second Ezra, 
Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesi- — 
asticus, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel, Prayer 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. alaly 


of Manasseh, First and Second Maccabees. On these see the 
preceding Lesson. All of these are instructive and worthy of 
study. They were never received as canonical by the Palestinian 
Jews, because they were not believed to be written by authorita- 
tive men. Catholics now accept them as canonical, and most 
Protestants reject them. ach of them must be judged on its 
own merits. 


7. The Samaritan Canon. — The Samaritans had adopted 
the Israelitish worship, but they withdrew from religious fellow- 
ship with the Jews soon after the Pentateuch was made canoni- 
cal, and before the prophetical and other writings had been 

included in the Canon. ‘They therefore held to the Pentateuch 
alone as sacred. 


LITERATURE. 


On the Canon: articles in Herzog, Schenkel, Encyclopedia 
Britannica; books of Introduction; Julius Fuerst, ‘‘ Der Kanon 
des Alten Testaments,’’ &c., Leipzig, 1868; Samuel Davidson, 
‘¢ The Canon of the Bible,’’? London, 1877. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What does the word canon mean? What did it come to signify? To 
what is it equivalent? When is a book said to be canonized, and called can- 
onical? What ancient nations besides the Jews had canons? What sacred 
book have the Arabs and other Mohammedans now? Why did the Jews 
have a preciser notion of a canon than other ancient peoples? What is the 
Jewish Canon? What is the Christian Canon? Whence comes the word 
Testament? What is the Old Covenant ?— the New Covenant ? 

2. Were many books of the Old Testament written before the time of 
Ezra? Which? Had the Israelites at that time the idea of a body of 
sacred writings? Were these books circulated and read? By whom? 
What was not attempted ? Were other books then composed, besides those 
that we have? What became of them? In what proportion was the atten- 
tion of the Jews fixed on their religious books? When did the prophetic 
spontaneousness die out ? In what did the people then live more and more ? 

3. What was the first thing to which attention was directed? What did 
the leaders of the people come to feel during the Exile? To what did the 
Babylonian Jews devote much time? Was a distinction then made between 
civil and religious lav? Why not? Besides the law what traditions were 
then collected ? Into what book was all this material shaped ? Do we know 
when the present division into five parts or books was made? At what 


118 THE HISTORY OF THE 


time had it been already done? When the book of Joshua was added, what 
was the whole called? In whose time had most of the Pentateuch been 
formed into a book? Of what was he convinced? For what purpose did 
he come from Babylon? Were his efforts successful? What did the people 
after a while feel ? What did the Pentateuch thus become ? 

4. What constituted the Canon for some time? As time went on, what 
books seemed to the Jews more and more important ? What other books 
were included in the same category with the discourses of the prophets? 
Why? What second canon was thus formed? What were the historical 
books called? What were the prophetic discourses called ? Were the pro- 
phetic writings always carefully collected? Can you give two examples? 
Was the prophetic canon regarded as equal in authority to the legal (the 
Pentateuch) ? 

5. Did the Law and the Prophets long constitute the Canon? Can you 
turn to New Testament passages in which this expression is used for the 
whole Old Testament ? Were other religious books written after the pro- 
phetic canon was formed? Can you mention them? When were they 
gathered into a third canon? What were they called by the Palestinian 
Jews ?—by the Greek-speaking Jews? Was there perfect agreement con- 
cerning them among the Jewish doctors? How late were there disputes 
about certain books? Was this third part of the Canon so highly valued as 
the others? What is the order of books in the Hebrew Bible? Whence 
comes the order in our English Bible ? 

6. Did the Egyptian Jews admit into their Canon books that the Pales- 
tinian Jews rejected? What are they called? Can you mention them? 
Are they all worthy of study ? [They all throw light on the religious and 
other ideas of their time.] Why were they not received as canonical by 
the Palestinian Jews? What Christians accept them? Who reject them? 
How must they be judged ? 

7. When did the Samaritans withdraw from religious fellowship with the 
Jews? What book alone did they look on as canonical? Why? . 





LESSON XXIV. 


THE SCRIBES. 


1. The Study of the Law.— While the sacred books were 
being collected, the religion of Israel was undergoing a modifi- 
cation, and entering on what has turned out to be its last stage 


—_— 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 119 


of development; this is what is called the scribal period. The 
prophets had labored several hundred years to make Yahwe’s 
righteousness a part of the people’s living religious faith; and 
by the end of the Exile the nation had, largely through them, 
accepted monotheism. After the Exile Israel was divided into 
two parts, one in Babylon, the other in Palestine; both devoted 
themselves to the completion of their ritual law, and each be- 
came in asense a church, or both together formed a church, 
that is, a community organized on a purely religious basis. 
They had the spiritual fundamentals of religion, namely, a holy 
God and obligation to live in communion of soul with him. 
Next, therefore, they set themselves to work out the rules of 
outward service; they came under the direction of the priests. 
This is what happened to Christianity also from the third cen- 
tury to the fifteenth. This was areal advance in religion; it 
was, indeed, a necessity for that stage of the world’s religious 
growth. For all men require rules, more or less according to 
their spiritual maturity. Israel was growing in ethical-religious 
fixedness, was acquiring greater spiritual stamina, and em- 
bodied its feeling in regulations for the ordering of life. The 
priests did a part of this work, and the scribes completed it. 
They took the Law and made it into a code for the determina- 
tion of man’s conduct every day and every hour. They thus 
did harm, indeed, as well as good; but they furnished the 
world with what it needed at that time. 


2. Formation of the Class of Scribes.— The Law was 
completed and introduced by Ezra and his friends, and thence- 
forward became the chief study of Israel. When it came to be 
put into practice, many points needed explanation. Occasions 
presented themselves not contemplated by the framers of the 
code, and it was necessary to adapt the written regulations to 
these. Hence there arose a class of students of the law. 

As printing was then unknown, all books had to be written 
out with the hand. This process was not only laborious, but 
required great carefulness in the writer, and knowledge of the 
subject-matter of the book; an ignorant copyist would be likely 


120 THE HISTORY OF THE 


to make mistakes which, in an important work, would be incon- 


venient and injurious. Thus the writers or seribes were com- 


monly men learned in the ritual code, and so the word ‘ scribe ” 
came naturally to signify a learned legalist or lawyer. After a 
while such men included the prophets and the other writings, 
as well as the law, in their study. Precise rules were made for 
those who copied the manuscripts. They had to prepare them- 
selves for the work by washing and prayer; the words of the 
Pentateuch and the other books were counted, so that not one 
should be omitted; and other precautions were taken against 
error. In this way the later manuscripts were made very accu- 
rate, though at first they doubtless contained mistakes. None 
of the manuscripts written before the beginning of our era have 
survived. After Ezra’s time, when the people felt an 
increasing interest in their sacred books, and, being scattered 
through the country, could not easily go up frequently to Jeru- 
salem to worship, religious exercises began to be held at various 
places on the sabbath-day. A part of the Law would be read 
and some explanation of it given. These assemblages were 
called synagogues (which means ‘‘ assemblages ’’), and the same 
name was given to the buildings in which they were held. After 
the prophetic canon was collected, selections from it also were 
read in these weekly meetings, and afterwards parts of the other 
books on certain occasions. The later usage required the pres- 
ence of ten men to constitute a synagogue. The Phari- 
sees, who were devoted to the maintenance of the national life, 
naturally became advocates of the study of the law and of the 
oral explanations of it which the expounders used to give in 
the synagogues and elsewhere. They would thus be associated 
with the scribes; and in the Gospels the phrase ‘‘scribes and 
Pharisees ’’ is often used to denote the advocates of the oral 
tradition. The difference between them is this: ‘scribe ”’ de- 
notes a profession or calling, like our “ lawyer ” or ‘‘ theologian ;” 
‘‘ Pharisees’? means a party, like our terms ‘‘ orthodox” or 
‘“‘high-church.”” A scribe might be a Pharisee or a Sadducee; 
most of them seem to haye been Pharisees. But not all Phari- 
sees were scribes; we may say, speaking generally, that a scribe 
was a learned Pharisee. 


fF hs oP 
7 


- 


‘ 
. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 121 


3. Schools and Teachers.— At various times eminent 
teachers of the law gathered their pupils around them and 
formed schools; but we know little of them till shortly before 
the beginning of our era. According to the later Jewish tradi- 
tion, Ezra and the distinguished men of his time established 
the Great Synagogue, which continued about 150 years, and 
settled the Canon; but there is no ground for this statement. 
We have records, however, of several teachers, of whom short 
sayings are reported. These teachers generally taught in pairs. 
The most important of these pairs was the one composed of Hillel 
and Shammai, who flourished about 50 B.c. Shammai insisted 
on a strict construction of the law, while Hillel favored the 
broadest interpretation of the rules, and his principles finally 
prevailed. He is the greatest legal scholar and reformer of this 
period. He framed a set of rules of interpretation, which the 
Jews have held to ever since. There had grown up a great 
mass of traditions relating to the Scriptures, and he arranged 
these in six divisions or orders (see on the Talmud, Lesson 
XXVI.). His grandson was Gamaliel, the Apostle Paul’s 
teacher (Acts y. 34, xxii. 8). Hillel was born and brought up 
in Babylonia. A saying is ascribed to him very much like the 
Golden Rule of Christ-: ‘‘ Do not to another what you would 
not like to be done to yourself ’’ (see Matt. vii. 12). 


4. The Sanhedrin.— The Jews had numerous local courts 
for the decision of questions of law. After a while they made 
a Supreme court which they called the Sanhedrin (this is the 
Greek word synedrion, and means a body of men sitting to- 
gether; a Council). We do not know exactly the date of its 
origination. It probably grew up gradually; it seems to have 
been in existence in the second century B.c., but not to have 
been fully organized till about the year 100 8.c. It consisted 
of seventy members (scribes and priests) and a president; the 
latter was the high-priest, as long as there was a high-priest (up 
to the destruction of Jerusalem). The Sanhedrin at first had 
supreme civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Israel. After- 
wards its powers were abridged by the Romans. It passed 
sentence of death on Jesus, but its decision had to be ratified 


122 THE HISTORY OF THE 


by the Roman governor. It had the ordering of the Jewish 
calendar. 


5. Method and Influence of the Scribes.— The Jews, 
as we have seen, had gone naturally into the studyof their Law, 
which they believed to be the divinely revealed guide of life. 
But, in their eagerness to obey it strictly, they became slaves 
of the letter and forgot the spirit. It was this that Jesus 
charged against them. Their oral commentary or legal tradi- 
tion became very burdensome (Acts xy. 10,) and sometimes in 
effect set aside the Law (Mark vii. 9). Their interpretations of 
Scripture were often forced and misleading. The result of the 
scribal study was to formalize religion. On the other 
hand, the scribes or doctors (rabbis) performed the great work 
of codifying the oral law. What was more important, their 
labors helped to produce that ethical-religious vigor which gave 
the Jews their superiority over the Roman world, and enabled 
them to impress their purer religious ideas on their contempo- 
raries, and thus prepare the way for Christianity. 


LITERATURE. 


Histories of Josephus, Ewald, Milman, Jost; Reuss, ‘‘ Ge- 
schichte des Alten Testaments;’’? Etheridge, ‘‘ Introduction to 
Hebrew Literature;” Bleek’s ‘‘ Introduction to the New Testa- 
ment;’’ works of Hausrath and Schiirer on ‘‘ Neutestamentliche 
Zeitgeschichte.”’ : 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What period of the religious history have we now reached? Does this 
represent a modification of the religion of Israel? Is it the last? What 
had the prophets labored to do? Had they been successful? After the 
Exile, into what two parts was Israel divided? To what did they devote 
themselves? What did they become? What is a church? What had 
they? What did they next set themselves to do? Was this a real ad- 
vance? Why? In what was Israel growing? What did the scribes do? 

_. ‘2. By whom was the Law completed ? What happened when it came to 
be put into practice? What class of men thence arose? How were books 
then made? What did this require? What did the word ‘‘scribe’’ come to 





RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 13 


signify ? Why? What other writings were afterwards included in the 
study ? What rules were made for copying? Were the later manuscripts 
thus made accurate? Have we any of the earliest? Can you describe the 
rise of synagogues ? What was the nature of the religious service held in 
them? Are they frequently mentioned in the New Testament? Are they 
mentioned in the Old Testament? [Yes,in the late Ps. lxxiv. verse 8.] 
Why were the Pharisees associated with the scribes? What is the differ- 
ence between them? 

3. Do we know much of the earliest teachers of the Law ? What was the 
Great Synagogue, according to the later Jewish tradition? Is this histori- 
cal? What are reported of several teachers? How did they generally teach? 
Which is the most important of these pairs? What was the difference be- 
tween the two men? What can you say of Hillel? Who was his grand- 
son? 

4, What was the Sanhedrin? How did it grow up? Can you give 
probable dates? Of whom did it consist ? What was its jurisdiction at 
first? Afterwards? What of its sentence on Jesus? Of what had it the 
ordering ? 

5. What happened to the Jews in their eagerness to obey their Law? 
What did their legal tradition become? What was the result of the study 
of the Law by the scribes? On the other hand, what great work did they 
perform ? What was a more important result of their labors ? 





LESSON XXV. 


THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 


1. The Herod Family.— We have now to relate the de- 
struction of the Jewish nationality, whose history we have 
followed through more than a thousand years. The Hasmonean 
kingdom, after a vigorous career of a century, had dwindled 
down to almost nothing (Lesson XX.). Hyreanus II. and Aris- 
tobulus, the sons of King Alexander Janneus, had engaged in 
civil war, and the Romans had been called in ; Pompey had 
taken possession of Jerusalem (s.c. 64), and Crassus had plun- 
dered the temple (.c. 53). Finally Julius Cesar made the 
Idumean Antipater governor of Judea, and his son Herod was 
afterwards established on the throne ; he reigned from B.c. 37 
to a.p. 4; in the latter part of his reign Jesus of Nazareth was 


124 THE HISTORY OF THE 


born. He was a vigorous but despotic and cruel ruler. He 
was a foreigner, belonging to a people who were hereditary 
enemies of the Jews ; he was attached to the Romans by educa- 
tion and interest, and became their tool. He had no love for 
the people over whom he reigned. He pitilessly extirpated the 
royal Hasmonean family, one of whom (Mariamne) he had mar- 
ried. He trampled savagely on cherished Jewish ideas. He 
did his best to Hellenize and Romanize the nation by introduc- 
ing Greek and Roman customs, such as public baths and theat- 
rical shows ; and a considerable party (the Herodians, Matt. 
xxii. 16) adhered to him. He was fond of splendid buildings, 
and, among other things, pulled down the temple and rebuilt it 
in magnificent style, so that it was one of the wonders of the 
world (John ii. 20, Matt. xxiv. 1). After a long reign he died 
of a painful disease, universally execrated. The story told of 
him in Matt. ii. is quite in accordance with his known character. 
His reign is a step towards the dissolution of the Jewish nation. 

A good many of his descendants are mentioned in 
the New Testament. On his death his territory was divided by 
the Roman Emperor (Augustus) among his sons: Archelaus 
(Matt. ii. 22) had Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (Edom) ; Herod 
Antipas or Antipater (Matt. xiv. 1-4) received Galilee and 
Perea ; Philip (Luke iii. 1) was made tetrarch of Iturea and 
Trachonitis, east of the sea of Galilee. After some years (A.D. 
41-44) one of his grandsons, Herod Agrippa I. (Acts xi. 1, 
20-23) became king over the whole land. He was friendly to 
the Jewish religion, as was also his son, Herod Agrippa II. (Acts 
xx. 13), who had a sort of ecclesiastical control over Judea. 
There were also noteworthy women in the Herod family, — 
Herodias (Matt. xiv. 3), Salome (xiv. 6), Drusilla (Acts xxiv. 
24), and Berenice (xxv. 13). 


2. The Roman Procurators. —Herod’s son, Archelaus, 
was so bad a ruler that he was banished by the Romans (A.D. 6), 
and Judea was placed under Roman governors or procurators. 
The fifth of these was the Pontius Pilate (a.p. 26-37), under 
whom Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. After him came two 
more, and then Herod Agrippa I., mentioned above, was made 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 125 


king. After his death there were seven more Roman governors, 
of whom two appear in the book of Acts (xxiv. 27). 


3. The Uprising and Fall.— The Jews had never submit- 
ted willingly to the Roman government. A party among them, 
indeed, were favorable to foreign ideas, but the mass of the 
people sided with the Pharisees, who were strict upholders of the 
national life, and hated the Romans. Some were constantly on 
the lookout for opportunity to revolt. There were several local 
uprisings, which were easily crushed by the Romans. Finally 
the feeling grew too strong to be held in check. There was not 
the slightest chance of success against the power of Rome ; but 
the Jews were desperate. The Zealots, that is, the men who 
were in favor of immediate revolt, grew daily more numerous. 
The administration of the fourteenth procurator, Gessius Florus, 
was particularly oppressive. On the other hand, there was no 
principle of order in the Jewish people itself. The high-priest- 
hood, which was the natural head of the nation, had become 
contemptible; high-priests were set up and removed at the will of 
the civil ruler. There was no conservative force ; the Zealots 
infected the land with their fanaticism, and the people plunged 
into war. The history of this war has been written by a man 
who took part in it, Flavius Josephus ; it would be hard to find 
a more thrilling narrative than his account of the struggle in 
Galilee, and the siege and capture of Jerusalem. But there 

“could be only one termination to the unequal combat. The Jews 

fought like heroes or tigers, and fought in vain. Jerusalem was 
eaptured by Titus (A.p. 70), the temple was destroyed, the peo- 
ple were slain or banished, the Jand was left desolate. 
The Jews have never recovered from this blow. They have never, 
since that time, been possessors of Palestine ; the temple has 
never been rebuilt ; there has never since been a Jewish nation. 
But though the nation was destroyed, the people remained. 
Scattered over the face of the earth, they have formed a new 
Israe] more remarkable in some respects than the old. = 


4. Change of Language.— Ever since the Exile the out- 
ward circumstances of the Palestinian Jews had been determined 


126 THE HISTORY OF THE 


by their surroundings. Among other things they had changed 
their language and their writing. They spoke their own He- 
brew tongue, and used the old Pheenician letters up to about B.c. 
150. But the Aramaic or Syriac language and writing were 
spreading over all this part of Asia, and the Jews adopted them. 
In this respect the Aramaic was like the French language to-day, 
which for some time has been the medium of intercourse be- 
tween the various nations of Europe ; only the former expelled 
its neighbors and took their place. For a century or two before 
the birth of Christ the Palestinian Jews wrote most of their 
books in Aramaic; it was their vernacular in the New Testament 
times, — it was spoken by Jesus and his disciples ; it was also 
the vernacular of the Babylonian Jews, and in it the greater 
part of the Talmud is written (Lesson XXVI.). In the New 
Testament it is called Hebrew (John xix. 20, Acts xxii. 2) ; 
the two languages are about as much alike as English and Ger- 
man. In Alexandria and the rest of Egypt the Jews spoke and 
wrote in Greek; and generally they adopted the language of 
the people among whom they lived. Yet, though they thus 
conformed their speech to that of their neighbors, they continued 
to be Jews in face and thought. 


5. Christianity.— During this period the greatest religious 
movement of the world sprang from the bosom of the Jewish 
nation. Jesus of Nazareth appeared and taught pure, spiritual 
religion in Galilee and Jerusalem. His first disciples were 
Jews, but he exercised little influence on his own people. 
Christianity was preached among the other nations, and accepted ~ 
by them; the Jews retained their own form of religion. All 
through the New Testament times the Jewish doctors of law 
were pursuing their own work. They believed that the Law 
was God’s final revelation of truth to men, and it seemed to 
them that Jesus and his followers were trying to destroy the 
Law ; they therefore held him to be an enemy of God. Unfor- 
tunately for them they could not distinguish between letter and 
spirit; they could not see that Jesus was only selecting and 
fixing the permanent elements of the Old Testament teaching, 
in order to give them to all the world. They were tied down 





RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 12% 


by their national narrowness. Their religion was the religion 
of their fathers, of their people ; they felt all parts of it to be 
important, and they would not surrender even its simplest cere- 
mony. So Christianity passed on, and left no trace on Judaism. 
For a century or two a good many Jews embraced the new 
doctrine, which meant for them that Jesus of Nazareth was the 
Messiah promised in the Old Testament; but the nation as a 
whole, the national development, remained unaffected. Chris- 
tianity is an unimportant incident in the history of this period 
of the religion of Israel. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the political history : the works of Josephus, Ewald, 


Milman, Palmer. 

2. On the history of culture: Etheridge, ‘‘ Introduction to 
Hebrew Literature ;” Jost, ‘‘ Geschichte des Judenthums;”’ 
Schiirer, ‘‘ Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte.” 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What is now to be related ? What had become of the Hasmonean 
kingdom ? What did the Romans do? Who was Antipater ? Who was his 
son? What was Herod’s character? Did he love the Jews? How did he 
treat the Hasmoneans ? — and Jewish ideas? Of what was he fond? Was he 
universally execrated ? What story is told of him in Matt. ii. ? Are many 
of his descendants mentioned in the New Testament? Can you refer to the 
passages ? 

2. When was Judea placed under Roman governors? Who was the fifth 
of these ? What others are mentioned in the New Testament ? 

3. Had the Jews ever submitted willingly to the Romans? Was there a 
Jewish party favorable to foreign ideas ? What of the mass of the people ? 
Was there a growing disposition to revolt? Was there any chance of suc- 
cess against the Romans? Who were the Zealots? Did they grow more 
numerous ? How did the procurator Gessius Florus increase the disaffection ? 
What was the condition of the Jewish nation? What of the high-priesthood ? 
Who has written the history of the war that followed? When was Jerusa- 
lem taken? Have the Jews ever recovered from the blow? Though the 
nation was destroyed, have the people remained? What of the new Israel ? 

4, How long did the Jews continue to use their own language and writ- 
ing? What did they then adopt ? Of what Jews did the Aramaic become 


128 THE HISTORY OF THE 


the vernacular? Was this language like the Hebrew? What language did 
the Egyptian Jews speak ?—other Jews? Did the Jews still retain their 
national appearance and thought ? 

5. What great religious movement occurred during this period? Did it 
greatly influence the Jews? What did they believe? How did they look 
on Jesus? What did they fail to see? By what were they tied down ? 
Did_some Jews become Christians? What did Christianity principally 
mean for them? Is Christianity closely connected with the history of the 
religion of Israel ? 





LESSON XXXVI 


THE TALMUD. bs 


1. The Later Judaism.— After the time of Ezra the Jews, 
as has been above described, became people of a book, and 
that book was the Old Testament, or, more especially, the Tora, 
or Law, or Pentateuch. But this book needed explanations, 
and after a while the explanations grew into a book, which 
gradually practically usurped the place of the Old Testament, 
and became the chief study of the learned men; this second 
book was the Talmud. It is the representative work of the 
later Judaism, as the Old Testament is of the earlier. The 
prophets had called the people to righteousness and the fear of - 
God in ringing tones; the priests had made a ritual law ; the 
- sages had discussed human life; the psalmists had poured out 
before God their repentance, their fears and trust and hopes, 
their peace and joy ; the scribes and rabbis undertook to turn 
religion into arithmetic. The Talmud is the code of the later 
Judaism, comprising both the civil and the religious law. It 
reflects the spirit, as it formed the study, of the nation at the 
moment when it rejected Christianity. It is the product of 
its decaying genius. It is the nation’s effort, after its creative 
power had vanished, to reduce the spirituality of its fathers to 
rule. Let us look at the two parts of the Talmud: the Mishna, 
or text, and the Gemara, or commentary. 


2. The Mishna.— In Hillel’s time the oral explanations of 
the Law had grown into a great mass. He was gifted with a 





RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 129 


retentive memory and considerable logical power, and he per- 
formed the service of arranging them according to subject- 
matter in six divisions, called orders. After his death the 
schools continued to study them in these divisions. Many note- 
worthy men devoted their lives to the explanation of Scripture, 
following the rules of interpretation that Hillel had drawn up. 
The schools, both in Palestine and in Babylonia, were well 
organized, having presidents and other instructors, two regular 
sessions or semesters yearly, and public disputations. Up to 
the destruction of Jerusalem, the chief Palestine school was in 
that city; it was then removed to Jamnia, on the shore of the 
Mediterranean, not far from Mount Carmel, where it remained 
about seventy years, surviving the unhappy insurrection of Bar- 
cochba. When it was broken up, a new school was established 
at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee. This place is renowned in 
connection with the labors of Jewish learned men. Here, for 
many centuries, they gave their lives to the study of their sacred 
books, and the community of scholars established there re- 
mained up to a few years ago. Here, towards the latter 
part of the second century, flourished the famous Rabbi Jehuda 
the Holy, commonly called, by eminence, simply Rabbi. The 
date of his death is disputed; some give it as a.p. 190, others 
as A.D. 220. It is he who was the compiler of the Mishna. 
There was, at this time, a growing feeling that the oral explana- 
tions of the Law ought to be committed to writing, lest they 
should vanish from men’s memories; for, up to this time, they 
had been taught only orally, and not a word of them written 
down. Several attempts were accordingly made to reduce them 
to writing; but Jehuda’s is the one that obtained general 
currency, and has been handed down to us. He did for the 
Jewish law nearly what Blackstone did for the English: he 
digested and arranged it. His six divisions or orders were 
those of Hillel. They are: 1. Zeraim (Seeds), on prayers, 
sowing, tithes, and first-fruits; 2. Moed (Meeting or Festival), 
on the Sabbath, Passover, Day of Atonement, Feast of Taber- 
nacles, New Year, Purim; 3. Nashim (Women), on laws of 
marriage and diyorce; 4. Nezikin (Injuries), on injuries, loans, 
buying and selling, the Sanhedrin, punishments, oaths, idolatry, 
; 9 


: “— Ve 
ba 
; 


130 THE HISTORY OF THE 


and heresy, together with the interesting tract called Pirke 


Aboth, or the Sayings of the Fathers, a collection of sketches 
of the men who transmitted the oral law; 5. Kadashim (Conse- 
crations), on various things connected with sacrifices; 6. Taha- 
roth (Purifications), on the rules of purification from ceremonial 
uncleanness. Each of the six orders is made up of several trea- 
tises; there are sixty-three of these in all. The Mishna is the 
Digest of Jewish law, civil and religious. It is written in 
Aramaized Hebrew. 


3. The Gemara.— After the Mishna was compiled, it became 
the text for lectures in the schools.. Being brief and terse, it 
also, like the Law, needed explanation, and, in the course of a 
century or two, it had called forth a large mass of oral commen- 
tary, which was handed down from teacher to teacher. This 
likewise was committed to writing, and in double form, in 
Palestine and in Babylonia; we have thus the Jerusalem Ge- 
mara (that is, tradition) and the Babylonian Gemara. Mishna 
and Gemara together (text and commentary) form the Talmud ; 
we commonly speak of the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Baby- 
lon. Of these the latter is the fuller and more impor- 
tant. The Babylonian Jews, descendants of those who had 
been carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, had formed 
renowned schools at Sora, Nehardea, and Pumbaditha, which 


rivalled, and sometimes outshone, the sister-academy at Tiberias. — 


In the fifth century of our era Rabbi Ashe (called Rabbana) 
did for the commentary what Jehuda had done for the text: he 
digested and arranged it; the result was the Babylonian Gemara. 
The date of the Jerusalem Gemara is uncertain; but it is usu- 
ally thought to be older than the Babylonian. The language of 
the Gemara is Aramaic, mixed with foreign words. 


4. Contents of the Talmud.—The word “talmud” means 
doctrine, or teaching, and the book so called is the digest of 
the Jewish thought of the first centuries of our era, on civil 
polity, religion, science, and philosophy; it is the Jewish 
Cyclopedia of Sciences. The disputations of the rabbis, of 
which the Gemara is a record, traverse a wide and varied field, 
and are characterized by an amazing mixture of acuteness, 
narrowness, geniality, profoundness, and nonsense (the same 


~~ 
/ 


4 


\ 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 131 


thing may be said of the writings of the Church Fathers). 
The legal discussions and judicial decisions (called Halacha) 
are often instructive by their sharp common sense and sound 
judgment ; the ethical and devotional disquisitions and stories 
(Haggada) are commonly archeologically and philosophically 
interesting. The religious character of the Talmud 
corresponds to what has just been said. The book is a faith- 
ful reflection of the religion of Israel of that day. It contains 
much true and lofty religious thought. In it may be found 
parallels to many of the sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the 
Mount and elsewhere. On the other hand, it shows bigotry, 
narrowness, and pettiness. Especially it is lacking in inspir- 
ing power. It conceives of religion too much as a system of 
rules. In reading it one does not feel the breath of the spirit 
of God. Its teaching may be very much like that of the New 
Testament (which was written about the same time and by 
Jews), but it lacks the life of the New Testament. 


5. Other Literature. — Besides the Talmud, various other 
works, containing commentaries on the Law, were composed or 
begun about this time ; that is, in the five first centuries of our 
era. They, like the Talmud, contain the two elements, halacha 
and haggada. To the latter of these the name ‘‘ Midrash ”’ 
(investigation or commentary) is sometimes given. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the Talmud : histories of Ewald, Jost, Graetz, Herz- 
feld; Fuerst, ‘“Culturgeschichte der Juden;” Etheridge, 
“Introduction to Hebrew Literature;’’ works on the history 
of New Testament times, by Hausrath and Schiirer; article 
“Talmud” in the works of Emanuel Deutsch; articles in 
cyclopedias. 

2. Translations: Latin translation of the Mishna, by Suren- 
husius, Amsterdam, 1698-1703; English translation of Eigh- 
teen Treatises of the Mishna, by De Sola and Raphall, London, 
1845; Barclay, ‘‘ The Talmud ” (17 Treatises), 1878; Schwab, 
“ Jerusalem Talmud” (13 Treatises), Paris, 1871-82; A. 
Wiinsche, ‘‘ Jerusalem Talmud ” (Haggada), Ziirich, 1880. 


132 THE HISTORY OF THE 


QUESTIONS. 


1. How did the Talmud usurp the place of the Old Testament among the 
Jews? How did the work of the scribes differ from that of the old prophets, 
priests, sages, and psalmists? To what did the Jews endeavor to reduce 
religion in the Talmud ? What are its two parts ? 

2. What service did Hillel perform? After his death what did the schools 
do? How were these schools organized? Where was the chief Palestine 
school up to the destruction of Jerusalem? Where after that? What can 
you say of Tiberias? What is the date of Rabbi Jehuda? Why did he 
undertake to arrange the oral tradition? What is the name of the book he 
composed? Can you mention its six divisions? What is the Mishna? 
What is a digest? 

8. What use was made of the Mishna? Why did it need commentary? 
In what two countries was this commentary committed to writing? What 
is it called? What is the Talmud? Who compiled the Babylonian Tal- — 
mud? When? What of the date of the Jerusalem Talmud ? 

4. What does Talmud mean? What may the Talmud be called? What 
is the character of the disputations of the rabbis? What is Halacha? — 
Haggada? Of what is the Talmud a faithful reflection? Has it lofty — 
thought? Does it contain parallels to the sayings of Jesus? In what is it 
lacking? How does it conceive of religion? What quality of the New 
Testament is not found in it ? 

5. What other works were composed or begun about this time? What 
two elements do they contain? What is Haggada sometimes called ? 





LESSON XXVII 


THE REMAINING LITERATURE. 


Philo and Josephus.— The Talmud may be called the 
second Pentateuch. As the Old Testament Pentateuch, or Tora 
(Law), embodies the old Israelitish religious ideas extending 
over seven or eight centuries (say from Samuel to Nehemiah), 
so the Talmud is a collection of the later ideas extending over 
about six centuries (say from the second century B.c. to the fifth 
century A.D.), and is a continuation of and commentary on the 
earlier books. These two books may be said to give the whole 
history of the religion of Israel; for before the time represented 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 133 


by the Pentateuch Israel was only a half-civilized nation, and 
after the Talmud nothing new was added by Jewish thought. 
To illustrate this we may take a general view of the literature 
of the Israelites after Christ. But first we must mention two 
_ famous writers who represent not the spirit of Israelitish thought, 
but that thought modified or transformed by foreign influence: 
they are Philo and Josephus. Philo of Alexandria (first half 
of the first century) adopted the Greek (Platonic) philosophy, 
which he tried to find in the Law. To do this he was obliged 
to allegorize the Pentateuch. He influenced Christian rather 
than Jewish thought. Flavius Josephus (latter half of the 
first century), born of a priestly family, fought against the 
Romans, but submitted and went over to them just before the 
capture of Jerusalem. He became to a great degree Romanized. 
He wrote the history of Israel in two works, the Antiquities 
and the Wars of the Jews. These are of prime importance, 
though he is not always trustworthy. Both these authors wrote 
in Greek. Let us now look at the Jewish literature proper. 


1. Bible Translations. — We have seen how the Jews, soon 
after the Greek conquest, everywhere gave up their own lan- 
guage (Hebrew), and adopted that of the people among whom 
or near whom they dwelt. In Egypt and elsewhere they learned 
to speak Greek; in Palestine they spoke Aramaic or Syriac. 
Thus the people were unable to understand their Scriptures in 
Hebrew, and desired to have them translated into the tongue 
they spoke. From this there resulted in Egypt the Septuagint 
version (Lesson XVII.); and in Palestine and Babylonia trans- 
lations were made into Aramaic. These were called targums, 
that is, interpretations or translations. They were at first oral: 
the synagogue reader used to read the Scripture in Hebrew and 
then render it into Aramaic for the benefit of the people. After 
a while, for greater convenience, they were written down. The 
earliest of these written targums is one of the Pentateuch, dat- 
ing from the second century of our era; it is called the Targum 
of Onkelos, and is a simple and generally faithful translation 
of the Hebrew, and therefore helpful to us in our study. It may 
be added that about the same time was produced a new transla- 


134 THE HISTORY OF THE 


tion of the Bible into Greek, bya Jew named Aquila. The 
Christians, who like the Jews used the Septuagint, employed 
this version to prove from the prophets the messiahship 
of Jesus of Nazareth; and the Jews, dissatisfied with the 
Septuagint, made this new translation on which they might rely 
against the Christians as a faithful rendering of the original. 
The version of Aquila, of which fragments remain, is extremely, 
sometimes absurdly, literal. The name Onkelos is supposed to 
be a pseudonym, and merely the Hebrew form of Aquila. The 
next targum after Onkelos is that of Jonathan on the propheti- 
cal books; it is less literal, more paraphrastic than the former, 
and introduces a good many later religious ideas. Then came 
targums on the other books (Hagiographa), and on the Penta- 
teuch. These are not very valuable as translations. Sometimes 
they are mere paraphrases, full of rabbinical notions. They 
are, however, valuable as indications of the ideas of the times 
in which they were written, and are full of matter interesting 
to the general reader. 


2. The Masora.— The Jews, as has been said, became 
worshippers of the letter of the Scripture. Every word, every 
letter, of the Old Testament became sacred in their eyes. This 
would have been well enough if they had not at the same time 
shut_their eyes to the deeper spiritual meaning of the Bible. 
The study of biblical words was called masora, and the learned 
men who pursued it were the Masorites. What they did was 
this: 1. It was necessary, of course, that the Scriptures should 
be read correctly in the synagogue; and therefore they fixed on 
a standard pronunciation (as our dictionaries try to do). In 
order to indicate the pronunciation they devised signs for the 
vowel-sounds; hitherto only the consonants of Hebrew words 
had been written, thus: milk, which in English you can pronounce 
only milk, might in Hebrew be pronounced melek, molek, melok, 
maluk, or malak. They pronounced after the manner of their 
time, which may not have been exactly that of the time of Da- 
vid and Isaiah. 2. They counted the words and letters of the 
Old Testament, in order to be sure that none were left out in 
copying manuscripts. 3. They settled the text of the Scripture, 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 135 


that is, decided that such and such words belonged in certain 
places and not other words. All manuscripts were then written 
after the standard copy. All existing Hebrew manuscripts give 
the masoretic text; and therefore, though about 1,400 are known, 
they only tell us how the Old Testament was read by the Jews 
in the sixth century of our era. 


3. Grammars and Dictionaries.— After the Moslem con- 
quest of Syria, Babylonia, and Egypt (from the seventh century 
on), the Jews in those regions learned to speak Arabic, and soon 
felt the need of books which should give the Arabic equivalents 
for Hebrew words. Then they caught the grammatical spirit 
from the Arabs, who had got it from the Greeks and Syrians. 
Many Jews wrote Hebrew grammars and dictionaries, and they 
have continued this sort of work up to the present day. The 
most famous of the earlier grammarians is Elias Levita, who 
was a contemporary of Martin Luther, and the teacher of many 
Christians; at that time the Christian world was just waking 
up to the study of Hebrew. 


4. Expository and Philosophical Works. — Ever since 
the composition of the Talmud the Jews have been writing com- 
mentaries on it and on the Old Testament. There is a good 
deal of sameness in these works, and for the most part they are 
not very valuable. (This remark is not meant to apply to recent 
Jewish commentaries, which follow scientific methods of exege- 
sis.) The most noted commentators on the Bible are Rashi 
(France, eleventh century), Aben Ezra (Spain, twelfth century), 
David Kimchi (France, thirteenth century), and Abarbanel 
(Spain, fifteenth century). The most famous expounder of the 
Talmud is Maimonides (Spain, twelfth century), called by the 
Jews Rambam, that is, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon (R M B M). 
He was at the same time the boldest and most philosophical of 
medieval Jewish writers, ranking, indeed, with the foremost 
thinkers of that period. The Jews expressed their judgment of 
him in the saying: ‘‘ From Moses to Moses there has arisen 
none like Moses,” that is, Maimonides had not his equal since 
the days of the great lawgiver of Israel. In those days the 


~ th 


136 THE HISTORY OF THE 


Jews learned philosophy from the Arabic translations of Aris- 
totle, and in their turn became the teachers of Christian phil- 
osophers. The philosophy of the Jews was thus not their own; it 


was borrowed from their neighbors. So it has been eyer since. ” 


They have followed the movements of the peoples among whom 
they lived. After the establishment of the modern method of 
investigation (the inductive method) by Bacon and Descartes, 
they produced Benedict Spinoza (Holland and France, seyen- 
teenth century), one of the greatest of the world’s thinkers; 
bnt he was a follower of Descartes, and gaye up Judaism. So 
Moses Mendelssohn was a disciple of the German philosophers 
of his time. It is religion and not philosophy that Israel has 
given to the world. 


5. Cabbala. — The mystical or gnostic teaching of the Jews 
is called Cabbala (the word-means ‘‘ tradition ’’), and those who 
study it Cabbalists. It is an attempt to explain the universe 
(including man) and its relation to God mystically. The Jews 
began this study early, but how they were led to it we don’t 
know. No doubt it was once useful in inciting men to think 
about the problems of the soul; but it is too fanciful to produce 
permanently good results. The two great books of the Cabbala 
are the Yesira and the Sohar, written about the thirteenth 
century. 


6. The Karaites.—It is interesting to observe that one 
small section of the Jews did not follow the Talmud, that is, 
the oral tradition, but confined themselves to the Scripture, 
whence they were called Karaites (from the Hebrew word kara, 
‘*scripture,’’ or, ‘‘to read’’). They are a small and uninfluen- 
tial body, strict in life, but narrow in thought and culture. 
They are now found chiefly in Russia, Turkey, and Egypt. 


7. Poetry. — We should expect to find that so active a peo- 
ple as the Jews had addicted themselves somewhat to poetry in 
the various lands of their dispersion. In fact, they have always 
followed the lead of their neighbors in this respect. In Alex- 
andria they imitated the Greek poets (Lesson XXII). Ata 
later time they felt the stimulus of the Syrian Christians and 
the Moslem Arabs. When they settled in Europe, they wrote 


q 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL, 137 


poetry in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany, which was based 
on models furnished them in these countries. And therefore, 
though there is a large mass of poetry written by Jews since the 
origination of the Talmud, there is, properly speaking, no Jew- 
ish poetry. As the Israelites spoke Arabic or Spanish or French 
or German or Italian, so they wrote Arabic, Spanish, French, 
German, or Italian poetry, though they may have used the He- 
brew language. They have always kept up the study of their 
ancient tongue. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On Philo and Josephus: articles in cyclopedias. Man- 
gay’s English translation of Philo is published by Bohn. Eng- 
lish translations of Josephus are easily accessible; of the Wars 
the best is Trail’s. 

2. On the Targums: there is a very good article in Smith’s 
Bible Dictionary; English translations of Onkelos and Jona- 
than, by J. W. Etheridge, London. 

3. On the Masora: articles in Herzog and Schenkel; books 
of Introduction. 

4. On the commentators, philosophers, and cabbalists: Jost, 
‘Geschichte des Judenthums;’’ Etheridge, ‘‘ Introduction to 
Hebrew Literature.’’ 

5. On the poets: the above-mentioned; and Delitzsch’s 
‘¢ Geschichte der Jiidischen Poesie.”’ 


QUESTIONS. 


What is the relation of the Talmud to the Pentateuch? What may 
these two books be said to give? Before looking atythe later literature, what 
two famous Jewish writers must be mentioned ? What do they represent ? 
When did Philo live? What did he do? What is the date of Josephus ? 
The outline of his life? What did he write? 


1. Why did the Jews have translations of their Scriptures ? What ver- 
sion had they in Egypt ? What are targums? Were they at first oral or 
written? Which is the earliest of the written targums ? What new Greek 
version was produced at this time? Why was it written? What was the 
next targum after Onkelos? What targums followed? In what respect 
are they valuable ? 


138 THE HISTORY OF THE 


2. What is the masora? Who are the Masorites? Can you mention the 
three things that they did? What text of the Old Testament do existing 
Hebrew manuscripts give? Can we learn from them certainly the text of 
Christ’s time? What earlier authorities for this latter text have we? [The 
Greek and Aramaic versions, and the quotations in the New Testament. ] 

3. From whom did the Jews catch the grammatical spirit? Did they 
make many Hebrew grammars and dictionaries? Can you mention one 
famous grammarian? Of whom was he a contemporary ? When did Chris- 
tian Europe begin the study of Hebrew ? 

4. Have the Jews composed many commentaries on the Bible and the 
Talmud? Are these valuable? Who is the most famous Talmud commen- 
tator? What saying had the Jews about him? Have the Jews ever had 
any real philosophy of their own? What great Jewish thinker lived in the 
seventeenth century ? 

5. What is the Cabbala? Is it now useful? Was it formerly useful ? 

6. Who are the Karaites? Have they ever been influential? Where 
are some of them now found ? 

7. Have the Jews written much poetry since the time of the Talmud ? 
Is it, properly speaking, Israelitish or Jewish poetry? Why not? Have 
they always kept up the study of Hebrew ? 





LESSON XXVIII. 


OUTWARD HISTORY FROM THE FALL OF 
» JERUSALEM. 


1. Proselyting.—It is a noteworthy fact that, for several 
centuries about the beginning of our era, the religion of Israel 
made numerous converts among the pagan peoples. Judaism 
was not missionary, it was proselyting; which is equivalent to 
saying that it was a national and not a universal religion like 
Christianity: it did not make organized efforts to press its na- 
tional faith on other peoples, but it required them, when they 
adopted it, to become Jews. Jt was anxious for the triumph of 
Judaism rather than of pure religion ; this was the disposition 
that Jesus denounced (Matt. xxiii. 15). About the 
beginning of our era the old religions ofthe Greek, Roman, and 
Semitic world were in process of dissolution; the people had out- 


el 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 139 


grown them, and ceased to find in them satisfaction for their 
religious needs. Judaism, with its lofty conception of God and 
its strict ethical code and its authoritativeness, proved attractive 
to many minds. There were thousands of proselytes all over the 
Roman empire, and in the outlying lands. These were of two 
classes: the proselytes of the gate conformed to Jewish customs 
except circumcision; the proselytes of righteousness were cir- 
cumceised, and became members of the Jewish people; the for- 
mer are called ‘‘ devout men” in the English New Testament. 
The Jewish faith was everywhere influential. A wife of the 
Emperor Nero is said to have been a proselyte. The satirist 
Juvenal ridicules the power of Jewish teachers over the Roman 
women. The royal family of Adiabene (a country lying just 
east of the Tigris, near Nineveh) embraced Judaism; King 
Izates underwent circumcision, and his mother, Helena, enriched 


- the temple with great gifts. This was in the time of the Em- 


peror Claudius. There were Jewish tribes in Arabia, and not a 
few of the inhabitants adopted their faith. But these triumphs 
of the religion of Israel were destined to be short-lived. They 
served chiefly to prepare the way for Christianity and Islam. 
The national faith of Israel could not permanently pass the 
boundaries of the nation. 


2. History in Palestine.— The outward history of the 
Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem has little general interest. 
It is the history not of a nation but of detached communities. 
In Palestine they were restless under the heavy yoke of the 
Romans, and in Trajan’s time (a.p. 115) there were bloody 
uprisings by their brethren in Cyrene and Cyprus. The Romans 
resolved to root out the Israelitish religion, which they felt to be 
incompatible with the unity of the empire. Trajan caused the 
temple-mount to be ploughed up. His successor, Hadrian, built 
a Roman city on the site of Jerusalem, called it Aelia, after his 
family, and forbade Jews to enter it. This harshness drove the 
unhappy people to revolt. An adventurer, who went by the 
name of Bar-cochba (Son of a Star, in allusion to Num. xxiv. 
17), proclaimed himself the Messiah, sent by God to deliver the 
nation from the Romans. He was acknowledged by the famous 


140 _ THE HISTORY OF THE 


rabbi Akiba; thousands of men flocked to his standard, and a 
fierce war ensued, speedily terminated by the defeat and death 
of the pretended Messiah and the execution of Akiba and thou- 
sands of his countrymen. The Jews were again crushed to 
the earth, and after this made no more attempts at indepen- 
dence in their own land. They continued for some time to havea 
religious organization, at the head of which was a Nasi, or Prince, 
whose religious authority was acknowledged by the whole Jewish 
world; but Palestine was no longer theirs. Some of them have 
’ lived on there ever since; a few thousands are now dwelling on 
the sacred soil, to which many go to die and be buried; but the 
body of the people have transferred themselves to other lands. 
Whether the nation will ever return to Palestine, it is impossible 
to say ; it seems unlikely now. 


3. In Babylonia.— The Babylonian Jews had formed a 
prosperous community ever since the Exile, surviving repeated 
changes of foreign dynasties, and pursuing legal studies with 
marked success. In this later time, as the Palestinians had their 
Nasi, so the Babylonians had their Resh Glutha, or Head of the 
Captivity, who exercised the functions of a civil and religious 
chief in his own district, and paid a partial and not always 
willing homage to his metropolitan brother in Palestine. There 
was considerable activity in the schools, resulting in elaboration 
of the ritual and ethical law, but there was no real advance in 
religion. The Babylonian Jews had their trials and 
sufferings, like their brethren in other parts of the world. The 
monarchs of the new Persian kingdom (the Sassanide, founded 
in the third century of our era) were zealous adherents of the 
Zoroastrian religion, and not unfrequently persecuted their Jew- 
ish subjects. In 651 a.p. the Sassanide kingdom was conquered 
by the Moslem Arabs, and the Jews remained undisturbed under 
the rule of their new masters. Apart from the oppression of 
local governors, indeed, their condition was bettered by this 
change of affairs. The Arabian Califs became patrons of science 
and art. Learned Jews were put into positions of trust, and 
Jewish thought was affected by Arabian science. So it con- 
tinued till towards the middle of the eleventh century, when the 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 141 


Jewish Babylonian Patriarchate (that is, the office of the Resh 
Glutha) ceased to exist, and the people were scattered. Many 
of them went to Egypt, Spain, and other countries, and those 
who remained were absorbed in the neighboring population. 


4. In Europe. — Driven out of Asia the Jews began a new 
and yigorous life in Europe. They settled by thousands in 
Spain and the adjoining countries. They devoted themselves 
to learning and the accumulation of wealth. They became 
famous as bankers, physicians, and philosophers. Self-contained 
and persistent, they were equally necessary to the Moslem and 
the Christian princes of Spain in the long series of wars between 
these powers. The histories of the Middle Ages abound in cu- 
rious narratives of Jewish energy and success. The Moslems 
favored and fostered them. Christian bigotry finally drove 
them from Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella). But they flourished 
in France, England, Italy, and Germany. They had innumer- 
able synagogues, schools, and commercial houses. Often perse- 
cuted and plundered, hated and despised as enemies of Chris- 
tianity, they grew steadily in numbers and power. As the 
Christian nations advanced in enlightenment, they saw the folly 
of their treatment of the Jews, and accorded them more and more 
privileges. At the present day their legal status is, with a few ex- 
ceptions, the same as that of other people. Their social ostracism 
remains ; this is partly the fault of their intense self-assertion 
and lack of social culture, and partly the fault of Christian race- 
prejudice. Their religion has ceased to have any attraction for 
those who are not born Jews. 


5. Messianic Expectations. — After Bar-cochba’s failure 
the rabbis continued to discuss the Messianic question, but 
without notable result. The opinion sprang up that there would 
be two Messiahs, one a son of Joseph, who should suffer and 
perish, the other a son of David, who should be victorious and 
found a Jewish kingdom. But circumstances rarely permitted 
the scattered sons of Israel to make a serious attempt at estab- 
lishing a nationality. One curious episode of this sort may be 
mentioned: a certain Shabbathai Zwi, born in Smyrna in 1641, 


142 THE HISTORY -OF THE 


raised the Messianic standard in Turkey. Thousands of Jews, 
including many learned men, acknowledged his pretensions and 
followed him. The East was filled with joy; Zwi set out to 
march to Jerusalem, and was everywhere received by his coun- 
trymen with royal honors. But the farce speedily ended. The 
pretender was summoned before the sultan, and there denied 
his Messianic claims, and embraced Islam. There was a simi- 
lar attempt a few years ago in Yemen (Arabia), and the Ortho- 
dox Jews still look for a son of David who shall lead them back 


to their own land. 


LITERATURE. 


Etheridge’s Introduction; Jost’s Geschichte; various histo- 
ries of the Moslems, of Spain, England, and other European 
countries; F. D. Mocatta, ‘‘ The Jews of Spain and Portugal,’’ 
London, 1877. 


QUESTIONS. 


1. Did Judaism make converts among the pagans ? Was it a missionary 
religion? What is a proselyting spirit ? What was true of the old religion 
at the beginning of our era? Why did Judaism prove attractive to many 
minds ? What were the two classes of proselytes ? What instances can you 
give of the spread of Jewish religious ideas? Were these triumphs per- 
manent? For what did they serve ? 

2. Why has the later outward history of the Jews little general interest ? 
What was the condition in Palestine ? What did the Romans resolve to 
do? What did Trajan do?— Hadrian? What was the result? Can you 
describe the uprising under Bar-cochba? What organization did the Pal- 
estine Jews continue to have? Have they ever since possessed the land ? 
Do some of them still dwell there? What of the nation’s again returning 
thither ? 

3. What had been the condition of the Babylonian Jews since the Exile ? 
What organization had they in later times? What was the result of the 
work of the schools? What was the condition of the Babylonian Jews 
under the Sassanide kingdom ?—under the Moslems? How long did the 
Babylonian Patriarchate last? What then became of the people? 

4. Whither did the Jews go from Asia? In what countries did they set- 
tle? To what did they devote themselves ? Were they especially successful 
in Spain? Which power favored them? What drove them from Spain? 
When? Where did they flourish? What has been the result of the ad- 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 143 


vancement of Christian nations in enlightenment? What is the present 
legal status of the Jews? What are the reasons of their social ostracism ? 
Is their religion attractive to other peoples ? 

5. In later times what opinion concerning the Messiah sprang up ? Could 
the Jews easily attempt to establish a nationality ? Can you relate the epi- 
sode of Shabbathai Zwi? For what do the Orthodox Jews still look? 





LESSON XXIX. 


THE REFORM. 


1. Intellectual Isolation of the Jews,—The main reason 
why the Jews in Europe remained devoted to their religious 
traditions was their ignorance of the advancing culture of the 
world. In Spain, it is true, where they were liberally treated by 
the Moslems, they had learned something of Greek philosophy 
through Arabic translations. But in the succeeding centuries, 
under bigoted Christian governments, they were cut off by 
Christian prejudice from intercourse with the new world of 
thought. They were condemned to live in separate quarters in 
cities (like the Ghetto in Rome); they were denied access to 
the universities; they were treated in all respects as unclean, 
and it was thought a great kindness that they were barely toler- 
ated. Thus they were shut up within themselves, and the 
breath of modern thought did not blow upon them. 


2. Progress.— But the condition of things gradually im- 
proved. This separation between man and man, the result of 
barbarous ignorance and prejudice, could not exist in the face 
of growing enlightenment. Here and there were Israelites who 
came under the influence of wider spheres of thought, and broke 
through the trammels of their national tradition. Some of 
these became Christians, some rejected both Christianity and 
Judaism, and many, no doubt, remaining in the Israelitish 
community, became centres of more liberal thought in small 
circles, The eighteenth century brought with it an 


144 THE HISTORY OF THE 


upheaval of old social, political, and religious ideas. In France 
this movement culminated in the Revolution, but it made itself 
felt all over Europe, and the Jews reaped benefit from it, espe- 
cially in Prussia. Germany was destined to be the cradle of the 
Jewish emancipation, as it had been of the Christian two and 
a half centuries before. In 1750 Frederick the Great issued 
his famous edict defining the status of the Jews, and ordering 
their life. The effect of this decree was to bring the long-ban- 
ished people back into relation with their fellows, and to subject 
them to the influence of the broader Christian thought. The 
result began to be seen immediately. ~Some of the Jews availed 
themselves of their new opportunities. Then naturally two 
parties arose, one favoring the adoption of new ideas, the other 
devoted to the maintenance of the old (and this was not the 
first time that such a state of things had existed in Israel). The 
party of progress increased slowly, but it lacked a leader. This 
lack was shortly supplied by the appearance of the remarkable 
man of whom we must now say a word. 

3. Moses Mendelssohn. — The third Moses was destined to 
exert a hardly less controlling influence over his countrymen than 
his two great predecessors (see Lesson XXVII. 4). He appeared 
at the critical time when the Jews needed a directing mind to 
bring their national feeling and thought into harmony with the 
scientific and philosophical culture of the new Europe. To this 
work he devoted his whole life with rare single-mindedness, 
simplicity, and soundness of judgment. He was twenty-one 
years old when Frederick’s edict was issued, and he lived up to 
the verge of the French Revolution (died, 17 86); he was thus in 
the centre of the great German and European movement of 
enlightenment. He had been introduced, almost by accident, to 
the modern broader thought, of which he became an expounder 
to his countrymen. He worked his way into sympathy with the 
best and most active minds of the time; he was the friend of 
Lessing and Lavater. At the same time he remained an Israelite. 
His national feeling was strong; what he tried to do was to show 
his people that they might remain true Israelites, and yet accept 
what was valuable in the philosophical and religious thought of 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 145 


the time. He was not radical in feeling or action, but rather 
made it his aim to build on the existing foundation of Jewish 
thought. In order to provide biblical reading for his children 
he began a German translation of the Old Testament, with 
notes; and this translation, in which the utterances of the 
ancient inspired men of Israel were treated as fresh, living 
truth, and disengaged from the rabbinical mummy-cloths, proved 
of inestimable advantage to the people, by bringing them into 
contact with simple, earnest religious truth and life. It was in 
this way that he led them into a new path, and became the 
founder of the Reform. He was bitterly opposed by a portion 
of the rabbinical party, but he kept on his way undisturbed. 
He sowed seeds that were to bring forth fruit beyond what he 
himself thought of. 


4. Progress since Mendelssohn. — The impulse given by 
Mendelssohn produced various tendencies in Jewish thought and 
effort, and gave rise to various problems. He himself, though 
opposed by some of the rabbis, had, through his conservatism, 
maintained friendly relations with the rabbinical party in gen- 
eral, and some of his friends and followers continued to pursue 
this course. Others were more inclined to break with rabbinism, 
and throw off everything distinctively Jewish. Others, again, 
attempted, but unsuccessfully, a union with the Christians. 
These different tendencies have continued to exist up to the 
present day. At the same time measures were taken to organ- 
ize more perfectly the religious government by means of councils 
and rabbinical officers, and to simplify the services of the syna- 
gogue. These various lines of progress were carried on not 
only in Prussia, but also in France, Holland, and England. 
Everywhere there was movement; men were inquiring into the 
reasons of things, and trying to improve them. The result was 
a general progress in freedom of thought, great increase of sci- 
entific work, and marked simplification of the religious creed. 


5. The Present Condition of the Reform. — The Reform 
to-day includes a majority of the Jews of Europe and America. 
These reject the authority of the tradition, and have thrown off 


10 


146 THE HISTORY OF THE 


many of the old religious rites and customs, retaining, however, 
circumcision. Their religion has assumed the general form of 
simple theism, but with many varieties of creed. Their public 
worship approaches in form and spirit that of the Christians. 
Their attitude towards Christianity is friendly; they revere 
Jesus of Nazareth as a great ethical and religious reformer. 
They enter warmly into the spirit of modern life, and are dis- 
tinguished in most departments of scientific research. The 
social barriers which have hitherto separated them from the 
Gentiles are slowly disappearing. But in proportion as they 
move in this direction, they lose their distinctively Jewish char- 
acter. Their God is not the Yahwe of the prophets, but the 
God of reason. Their national development is merged in the 
general current of the world’s thought. 


6. The Orthodox. — A respectable number of Jews still hold 
to the Talmud and the traditional law. These constitute the 
Rabbinical or Orthodox party. They are most numerous in 
Austria, but are found all over the world. They cannot be said, 
however, to reproduce exactly the traditionalists of the early 
centuries; except in some remote corners of Europe and Asia, 
they too have been touched by the modern spirit. The differ- 
ences between them and the Reformed may be studied in the 
synagogues which are found in all our cities. 


LITERATURE. 


1. On the history of the Reform movement: the works of 
Jost and Herzfeld above mentioned; Barclay, “‘ The Talmud; ”"’ 
Felix Adler, ‘‘ Reformed Judaism,’’ North American Review, 
vol. 125; Dr. Gottheil, ‘‘ The Position of the Jews in America,” 
North American Review, vols. 126, 127. 

2. On the writings of Mendelssohn and others: Etheridge’s 
Introduction. 

3. On the social and religious life of the Jews: J. F. 
Schroder, ‘‘Satzungen und Gebrauche des Judenthums,”’ 
Bremen, 1851. 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 147 


QUESTIONS. 


1. Why did the European Jews remain devoted to their tradition? 
What was the reason of their ignorance? What was their condition? 

2. What improvement gradually came to pass? What happened to in- 
dividual Israelites? What did the eighteenth century bring with it? Was 
this movement felt all over Europe ? What country became the cradle of Jew- 
ish emancipation ? What edict was issued by Frederick the Great ? When? 
What was its effect? What two parties arose? What was lacking ? 
Was the lack soon supplied ? 

3. At what critical time did Moses Mendelssohn appear? To what did 
he devote his life? At what time did he live? Of what did he become an 
expounder to his countrymen? Did he remain an Israelite? What did he 
try to do? Was his course radical ? What translation did he undertake ? 
What was its effect? With what did he bring his people into contact ? 

4. What was the result of the impulse given by Mendelssohn? What 
different directions did his followers take? What other measures were set 
on foot? Where? What was the result of all this ? 

5. What does the Reform now include? What do they reject? What 
form has their religion assumed ? What of their public worship? — their 
attitude towards Christianity ? — their relation to modern life ? — their social 
position ? What effect does this have on their distinctively Jewish charac- 
ter? What of their national development? 

6. Who constitute the Orthodox party? What other name may be 
given them? Where are they found? Have they been affected by mod- 
em progress ? 





LESSON XXX. 
CONCLUSION. 


1. The Persistence of the Religion of Israel.— The his- 
tory of the religion of Israel, which we have rapidly gone over, 
exhibits its remarkable tenacity of life. It has survived all the 
changes in the outward and inward condition of the people, 
and is to-day, four thousand years after the Hebrews entered 
Canaan, professed, revered, and followed by multitudes of their 
descendants. No other religion in the world has enjoyed so 


148 THE HISTORY OF THE 


long a recorded life. This persistency is to be ascribed, in part, 
to its elevated conceptions of God and man, which gave it the 
advantage over its rivals; but in part, also, to the vigor of the 
Jewish race, which has maintained the separate existence of 
the people for so many centuries in the midst of strangers. 
These are the human agencies that God has employed to pre- 
serve this religion which has been so powerful a factor in the 
history of the human race. 


2. Its Character and Growth.— The facts that have come 
to our knowledge make it probable that all the ancient or 
national religions originated in the same way, and grew accord- 
ing to the same laws. The differences between them are the 
differences between the peoples to whom they belonged. Up to 
a certain point in their development they are all alike, andthen | 
they begin to show their local peculiarities. Of the earliest 
stage in the growth of Israel’s religion, the fetishistic, we know 
almost nothing; when we first find them in Canaan, they are 
polytheists, like their neighbors, that is, they had separated the 
Deity from the objects of nature, and regarded these last as 
symbols of the Godhead. Thus much of their religious career 
belongs to the general history of ancient religions. We are 
more interested in the succeeding development, which may be 
dated from the time of Samuel. In this we may note the two 
following stages: 1. There was the period of conflict between 
polytheism and monotheism, extending from Samuel to the 
Exile. It is described in the Old Testament as a struggle 
between Yahwe and the other gods. In this conflict there were 
two elements: the religious, that is, the recognition of the fact 
that there was no god but Yahwe, and the ethical, that is, the 
recognition of God’s perfect holiness and his requirement of 
holiness from his servants. These two went hand in hand. 

»_ Just this process went on in other nations, only it stopped at a 
certain point. Israel is distinguished from other ancient peoples 

_ by the fact that it pressed on till it reached the conception of 
the one holy God. We cannot tell exactly how it attained to 

_ “this truth. We can see the general character of the historical 
KX \progress: the basis was Israel’s intense sentiment of nationality, 


RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 149 


Naa its deep-seated conviction that Yahwe, as its God, was 
above the other gods; from this, the deeper religious thinkers, 
seeing how all nations were bound together, were led to assert 
Yahwe’s kingship over all the world, and then there was no 
need of any other god; at the same time, the highest ethical 
“onceptions of the best men were identified with the Deity, as 
was the case in other nations also, only with greater precision 
and completeness in Israel; the prophets declared that Yahwe 
punished the sins of his own people as well as of other nations; 
finally, the Exile sifted Israel, and placed the religious develop- 
ment in the hands of the most advanced religious thinkers; 
» the more superficial element was set aside, and the new nation 
| was monotheistic. 2. There was the period of religious law, 
_ that is, the effort to order man’s life in accordance with the will 
| of God. Having reached the idea of a holy God, the next aim 
/of Israel was to secure holiness of life. This they tried to secure 
by fixed rules, which they kept on increasing till these became 
burdensome and injurious. It was a noble attempt at the per- 
fecting of life, but it was not successful. It established the 
idea of man’s obligation to be holy, but it failed to show him 
the way. It was at this point that Jesus of Nazareth came 
forward, and taught that holiness was reached, not by rules, but 
by the inward disposition of love to God. But Israel was too 
firmly convinced of the rightness of its own method to listen to 
him. It continued, and has continued to this day, to make law 
its life, only demonstrating more and more fully the insuffi- 
ciency of any set of rules for the perfecting of man’s life. The 
mission of the religion of Israel was finished when the higher 
teaching of Jesus came. Its existence since that time has been 
only the semblance of life; and, as we have seen, the Jews have 
had to abandon it just in proportion as they have come under 
the influence of modern thought. 


3. Its Legacy to us. — It is worth while for us to remember 
how closely our religious life is connected with that of Israel. 
The Bible is our store-house of religious thought and feeling, 
and the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, is Israelit- 
ish. In the prophets and psalmists we have the record of the 


150 THE HISTORY OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. 


national religious life of the ancient Israel; in the evangelists 
and apostles we have the later Jewish ideas transformed by 
faith in Jesus as the Christ of God. Our fundamental religious 
ideas, God, sin, redemption, are of Israel. These, together with 
the belief in the future life (which, though not prominent in 
the Old Testament, was part of the faith of the later Judaism), 
Christianity inherited from the religion of Israel. To trace our 
religious pedigree, therefore, we have to go back to the prophets 
and the Law. We have seen how a pure monotheistic basis for 
religion was reached in ancient Israel. Along with this grew 
the conception of sin, first as an offence against the sovereignty 
of the divine king of Israel, and then as an offence against his 
law; out of which came the deeper conception of it as a viola- 
tion of man’s conscience, regarded as the image and expounder 
of the perfect holiness of God. Israel held sin to involve 
accountability to God, but it did not leave the sinner hopeless, 
—it trusted in the mercy of God, which provided redemption 
and salvation for his servants who repent and turn to him. 


_ Christianity may be-called the .deyelopment.of the pure spiritual 


elements of the faith of Israel. The latter is not dead, but 
lives in the faith of the Christian world. 


LITERATURE. 


On the history of doctrine: Schultz, ‘‘ Alttestamentliche 
Theologie,” Frankfurt a. Main, 1878; Oehler, ‘‘ Theology of 
the Old Testament ’’ (English translation). 


QUESTIONS. 


1. What is to be said of the persistence of the religion of Israel? How 
is it to be explained ? 

2. What is true of the early stages of all national religions? When 
does the religious career of Israel become interesting? What two periods 
may be noted? Can you describe the period of conflict ?— the period 
of law? 

3. What book have we received from Israel? "What fundamental relig- 
ious ideas? What was Israel’s conception of sin and redemption? In 
what does the faith of Israel still live? 


‘ 


INDEX. 


——_@—__—__ 


Aaron, 20, 30. 

Abarbanel, 135. 

Aben Ezra, 135. 

Abimelech, 30. 

Abraham, 15, 16. 

Adar, month, 95. 

Adiabene, 139. 

Aelia, city, 139. 

Ahab, 48, 44, 47. 

Ahasuerus, 95. 

Ahaz, 56, 58, 62. 

Ahijah, the prophet, 42. 
Akiba, rabbi, 140. 

Alexander Jannzus, 101, 123. 
Alexander the Great, 86, 94. 
Alexandria, 90, 105, 111, 136. 
Allegory, 106. 

Alliances, foreign, 61. 
Amalekites, 10, 34. 
Ammonites, 10, 37, 54, 69, 71, 75. 
Amon, king, 66. 

Angels, 86, 109, 110. 
Antipater, 101, 123. 
Aphorisms, 104. 

Apocalypse, 108, 

Apocrypha, the, 116. 
Apologues, religious, 95. 
Apothegms, 96. 

Aquila, Greek version of, 134. 
Arabs, 9, 69. 

Aramzans, 9. 

Aramaic language, 126, 133. 
Aristobulus, king, 101, 123. 
Aristotle, 136. 3 

Ark, the, 21, 30, 32, 87, 38. 
Artaxerxes Longimanus, 86, 90. 
Ashe, rabbi, 130. 

Asher, the deity, 12. 

Ashera, the goddess, 44, 45, 59, 66. 
Ashtaroth, the, 47. 
Ashtoreth, 66. 


Asiatic nations, sacred books of, 113. 


Assyrian monuments, 40. 


Assyrians, 9, 43, 49, 50, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 
64, 69. 

Athaliah, 45, 49, 50. 

Avilmarduk (Evil-Merodach), king, 70. 

Baal, 43, 44, 47, 66, 100. 

Baasha, king, 43. 

Babylon, 40, 58, 81, 82, 84, 103. 

Babylonia, 86 

Babylonians, 61, 69, 70, 76, 79, 80, 81, 109. 

Bar-cochba, 139. 

Baruch, 72. 

Baruch, book of, 111. 

Baths, public, 124. 

Bedawin, 14. 

Beersheba, 50. 

Bethel, 43, 54. 

Bethlehem, 36. 

Bigotry, Christian, 141. 

Blessings and curses, 67. 

Book, people of the, 90. 

Books, Greek order of, 116. 

Books, Hebrew order of, 116. 

Books, lost, 114. 

Books, sacred, 90, 99, 114, 118, 120. 

Cesar, 101, 123. 

Calendar, Jewish, 122. 

Canaanites, 9, 10, 28. 

Canon, the, 105. 

Canon, the first, 114. 

Canon, the second, 115. 

Canon, the third, 116. 

Canon, discussions of the, 116. 

Captives in Babylon, 79, 84. 

Captivity, Assyrian, 57, 74. 

Captivity, head of the, 140. 

Caucasian race, 9. 

Chaldeans, 69, 70, 71, 81, 111. 

Chants, Gregorian, 104. 

Chemosh, 23, 66. 

Christ, the, 62, 64, 70, 72, 75, 77, 82, 87, 
89, 106, 110, 114, 122, 128, 124, 126, 
131, 134, 138, 146, 149, 150. 

Church, 76, 85, 95, 119. 


152 INDEX. 
Circumcision, 16. Ezra, third book of, 111. 
Claudius, emperor, 139, Fasts, 85. 


Clement of Alexandria, 111. 

Code, religious, 20, 25, 52, 67, 76, 80. 

Code, ritual, 119, 120. 

Commerce, Hebrew, 38. 

Conflict, period of religious, 148. 

Council (Sanhedrin), 121. 

Covenant, the new, 114. 

Covenant, the old, 114. 

Crassus, 123. 

Creation, story of, 91. 

Cyprus, 139. 

Cyrene, 139. 

Cyrus, 40, 75, 81, 84. 

Dagon, 24. 

Damascus, 58. 

Dan, city, 43, 54. 

Darius Hystaspis, 85. 

David as poet, 38, 104. 

David Kimchi, 135. 

Davidic king, prosperity under, 68, 80. 

Deborah, 29. 

Decalogue, two versions of, 25. 

Dedication, feast of, 100. 

Deities, foreign, 24, 30, 33, 39, 44, 45, 47, 
55, 59, 65, 66. 

Deuteronomy, book of, 19, 67, 91. 

Domesday-book, the Israelitish, 28. 

Ecclesiastes, 106. 

Ecclesiasticus, 105. 

Edomites, 10, 37, 54, 77, 80, 101. 

Egypt, 14, 72, 84, 86, 99. 

Egyptians, 13, 45, 58, 64, 70. 

Eighth century B.c., the, 51. 

Elders of tribes, 10. 

Elegy on Saul and Jonathan, 38. 

Elias Levita, 135. 

Elihu, 97. 

Elohim-narrative, 92. 

Elyon, 12. 

Embassy to Rome, Jewish, 101. 

Ephod, 30. 

Ephraim, tribe of, 27, 29, 42. 

Essenes, the, 101. 

Esther, additions to, 95. 

Ethiopian, 58. 

Eusebius, 111. 

Exodus, book of, 19, 91. 

Exodus, date of the, 18. 

Exodus, origin of, 91. 

Ezekiel, tragic poet, 111. 

Ezra, 86, 87, 90, 93, 114, 115, 121. 


Ferdinand and Isabella, 141. 
Festivals, 21, 90. 

Fetishism, 11, 148. 

Flood, narrative of the, 92. 
Foreigners in Palestine, 86. 
Fortune-tellers, 33. 

Frederick the Great, edict of, 144, 
Future life (Egyptian), 21. 

Future life (Hebrew), 21, 96, 105, 106, 150, 
Gad, deity, 12. 

Galilee, 125, 126. 
Gamailiel, 121. 

Games, Greek, 100. 
Gath, 37. 

Gemara, language of the, 180. 
Genesis i.—xi., 77. 
Genesis, origin of, 91. 
Genesis-stories, 15. 
Gerizim, mount, 86, 101. 
Ghetto, the, 143. 

Gideon, 30. 

God, kingdom of, 109. 
Goliath, 36, 104. 

Greek language, 86, 126, 
Greeks, 9, 61, 86, 109. 
Gymnasiums, 100. 
Hadrian, emperor, 139. 
Haggada, 131. 
Hagiographa, the, 116. 
Hagiographa, targums of, 134. 
Halacha, 131. 

Hamites, 9. 

Hasidim, the, 100. 
Hebrew, study of, 185, 187, 
Hebrews, origin of, 10. 
Helena, queen, 139. 
Heliopolis, 86. 
Hellenizers, 100. 
Hercules, 30. 

Herod the Great, 101, 123. 
Herodians, the, 124. 
Hexateuch, the, 115. 
Hezekiah, annals of, 62. 
Hezekiah, king, 58, 104. 
Hieroglyphic writing, 14. 
High places, 50. 

High priest, 32, 121, 125, 
Hilkiah, priest, 68. 
Hillel, 121, 128. 

Hillel, saying of, 121. 
Histories, 52. 


INDEX. 153 


Hittites, 28. 
Hoshea, king, 57. 
Host of heaven, 11, 66. 


Idolatry, 11, 23, 24, 30, 89, 43, 45, 47, 60, 
54, 59, 63, 65, 66, 72, 75, 76, 82, 84, 


110. 
Idumeans, 101. 
Indo-Europeans, 9. 
Isaiah, disciples of, 66. 
Isaiah x].-Ixvi., 81, 116. 
Isaiah liii., 76, 82. 
Islam, 189. 
Itinerary, the, 27. 
Izates, king, 189. 
Jacob, 15, 54. 
Jael, 29. 
Jamnia, 129, 
Jehoahaz, king, 70. 
Jehoiachin, 70, 75, 79. 
Jehoiada, 49. 
Jehoiakim, king, 70, 72, 75. 
Jehoshaphat, 45. 
Jehuda, rabbi, 129. 
Jephthah, 30. 
Jeremiah, epistle of, 111. 
Jeroboam II., 49, 95. 
Jerusalem, capture of, 125. 
Jerusalem, centre of worship, 65. 
Jerusalem, destruction of, 125, 129. 
Jesus, father of Sirach, 105, 
Jesus, son of Sirach, 105. 
Jethro, 19. 
Jews, the orthodox, 142. 
Jews, ostracism of, 141, 143. 
Jews in Arabia, 139. 
Jews in Austria, 146. 
Jews in Babylonia, 79, 90, 93, 115, 126. 
Jews in Egypt, 86. 
Jews in England, 145. 
Jews in France, 145. 
Jews in Holland, 145. 
Jews in Prussia, 144, 145. 
Jews in Russia, 186. 
Jezebel, 44. 
Jezreel, 49, 
Joab, 37. 
John Hyrcanus I., 101. 
John Hyrcanus IT., 101, 128. 
Jonathan, son of Saul, 38. 
Jonathan, targum of, 134. 
Jonathan, the Hasmonean, 100. 
Joseph, 15. 
Josephus, Flavius, 101, 125, 132. 


Josiah, king, 68, 70, 71, 111. 

Judah, tribe of, 27, 29, 87, 42. 

Judaism, 89, 127, 128. 

Judas Maccabeeus, 100, 111. 

Jude, book of, 110. 

Judeans, 79, 99. 

Judith, book of, 112. 

Jupiter, altar of, 99, 

Kebar, canal, 79. 

Ketubim, the, 116. 

Koran, the, 114, 

Kushite, 58, 

Law books, 52, 67, 91. 

Law, students of, 119. 

Law, period of religious, 149, 

Laws, ceremonial, 91. 

Laws, codification of, 122. 

Laws of early tribes, 10, 11. 

Lawyers, 115, 120. 

Legalists, 95. 

Letters, Phoenician, 126. 

Leontopolis, 86. 

Levites, 30, 44, 84, 94, 104. 

Leviticus, book of, 19, 59, 91. 

Leviticus, origin of, 91. 

Locusts, plague of, 87. 

Luther, 65, 90, 185. 

Maccabees, the, 84. 

Maccabees, first book of, 111. 

Maccabees, second book of, 111 

Maimonides, 185. 

Magic, 66. 

Man, Son of, 110. 

Manasseh, king, 66, 68. 

Manhood, religious, 75. 

Manuscripts, 119, 120, 185. 

Mardocheeus, 95. 

Mariamne, 124. 

Mashal, 39. 

Mattathias, 100. 

Medes, 69, 81, 84, 109. 

Megiddo, battle of, 70. 

Mendelssohn, Moses, 186, 

Mendelssohn, translation of Old Testa- 
ment, 145. 

Menephtah, king, 17. 

Mesopotamia, 9, 79. 

Messiah, ben-Joseph, 141. 

Messiah, the, 61, 110, 127, 189, 

Micaiah, the prophet, 58. 

Midrash, the, 181. 

Milcom, 66. 

Miriam, 20. 


154 


Mishna, language of the, 130. 

Mishna, orders of the, 129. 

Moabites, 10, 37, 54, 69, 71, 73, 75. 

Modin, city, 100. 

Monotheism, 24, 25, 37, 55, 75, 76, 119, 
148. 

Moon, worship of the, 11, 66. 

Mordecai, 95. 

Moriah, mount, 39. 

Moslems, the, 58, 135, 186, 140, 141. 

Most High, saints of the, 110. 

Music, 33, 94, 108, 104. 

Nadab, king, 43. 

Names, plays on, 62. 

Nasi (prince), 140. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 57, 70, 74, 109, 180. 

Necromancers, 34. 

Nehemiah, 86, 115. 

Nehushtan, 59. 

Nero, 139. 

Nineveh, 71, 95, 112, 139. 

Numbers, book of, 19, 91. 

Offerings, 67, 71, 76. 

Onias, high-priest, 111. 

Onkelos, targum of, 133. 

Party, national, 100, 101. 

Patriarchate, Babylonian, 141. 

Patriarchs, the, 52. 

Paul, the apostle, 54, 71, 121. 

Pekah, king, 56. 

Pentateuch, date of, 91. 

Pentateuch, division of, 115. 

Pentateuch, meaning of, 90. 

Pentateuch, Samaritan, 86. 

Pentateuch, targums on, 134. 

Period, scribal, 119. 

Period, Greek, 105. 

Persians, 9, 61, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 109. 

Pharisees, the, 101, 120, 125. 

Philistines, 10, 32, 58, 69, 71, 75. 

Philo, 182. 

Philosophy, 52, 96, 104, 106, 111. 

Phocylides, 111. 

Phoenicians, 9, 87, 54. 

Pilate, Pontius, 124. 

Pirke Aboth, 180. 

Poems, 52. 

Pompey, 101, 128. 

Preachers, 60. 

Priests, list of, 94. 

Priests, power of, 89. 

Priestly period, 83. 

Princes of Judah, 72. 


INDEX. 


Prophecy, periods of, 61. 

Prophetic discourses, 53. 
Prophetesses, 110. 

Prophets, former, 115. 

Prophets, latter, 115. 

Prophets, number of, 52. 

Prophets, order of, 33. 

Proverbs, 38, 96. 

Psalm on Goliath, 104. 

Psalms, five books of, 104. 

Psalms, titles of, 104. 

Psalter of Solomon, 104. 

Purim, feast of, 95. 

Rabbis, 122,128. + 

Rameses II., 17. 

Rameses, city, 16. 

Ramoth Gilead, 49. 

Rashi, 135. 

Rechabites, the, 48. 

Redemption, 150. 

Reform, ancient, 48, 59, 65, 68, 89, 90, 121. 
Religion, the Greek, 99, 138, 
Religion, the Roman, 188. 
Responsibility, personal, 80. 
Restoration, the, 98, 94. 
Resurrection, 87, 110, 
Revelation, 108. 
Revolution, French, 144. 
Romances, historical, 112. 
ar the, 9, 61, 99, 121, 128, 124, 125, 
Ruth, book of, 77. 

Sabak (So), king, 57. 

Sabbath, the, 21, 90, 120. 

Sacrifice, human, 25, 81, 59, 66. 
Sacrifices, 12, 67, 71, 76, 81, 89. 
Sadducees, the, 101. 

Sages, 38, 52, 67, 96, 97, 104, 106. 
Samaria, city, 43. 

Samaria, province, 57. 

Samaritans, 57, 86, 117. 

Samson, 30. 

Sanctuary at Dan, 30, 43. 

Sanhedrin, the, 116. 

Sargon, king, 57. 

Sassanide kingdom, 140. 

Satan, 97. 

Schools of prophecy, 53. 

Schools, Rabbinical, 129. 

Seers, 33, 109. 

Seir, nation, 80. 

Sennacherib, king, 58, 63. 

Septuagint, 72, 86, 95, 115, 134. 





INDEX. 


Sermons, 53. 

Serpent, bronze, 59. 

Seventy years, the, 75. 

Shabbathai Zwi, 141. 

Shaddai, 12, 16, 24. 

Shalmaneser IV., 49, 57. 

Shammai, 121. 

Sheol, 54, 55, 106. 

Shiloh, 32, 33. 

Shows, theatrical, 124. 

Shrines, local, 59, 65, 67. 

Simeon, tribe of, 42. 

Simon, the Hasmonean, 100. 

Sinai, 20, 27. 

Sirbonian lake, the, 27. 

Sohar, the, 136. 

Spinoza, Benedict, 136. 

Spontaneousness, prophetic, 114. 

Stars, worship of, 11, 66. 

Study, legal, 90. 

Sumerian-Accadians, 22. 

Sun, worship of, 11, 66. 

Swine’s flesh, 99. 

Synagogue, the Great, 121. 

Synagogues, 87, 120, 146. 

Syria, 86, 99. 

Syria, Greek kingdom of, 99, 100, 109. 

Syriac language, 126. 

Syrians, 9, 48, 49, 58, 56, 100. 

Tabernacle, the, 39. 

Tabernacles, feast of, 43. 

Talmud, 126, 128. 

Targums, the, 133. 

Taxes, 42. 

Tekoa, 58. 

Tel-Abib, 79. 

Temple of Herod, the, 124. 

Temple, ritual of, 94. 

Temple, the second, 85, 94. 

Ten tribes, the, 42, 58, 74. 

Teraphim, 24. 

Testament, the New, 37, 72, 110, 114, 126, 
131. 

Testament, the Old, 114, 128, 

Text, Masoretic, 134. 








155 


The Law and the Prophets, 116. 

Tiberias, 129. 

Tiglathpileser I1., 56. 

Tirhakah, king, 58. 

Titus, 125. 

Tobit, book of, 112. 

Tora, 26, 90, 115, 128, 182. 

Trade by barter, 11. 

Traditions, 52, 91, 121, 122, 145. 

Trajan, 139, 

Tribe princes, 28. 

Universities, Jews excluded from the, 
143. 

Urijah, priest, 59. 

Urim and Thummim, 21. 

Uzziah, 50. 

Visions, 85, 109, 111. 

Vowel-signs, 134. 

Well-song, 52. 

Wisdom personified, 105. 

Wives, foreign, 90. 

Wizards, 34. 

Women, guild of, 32. 

Women in Temple choir, 104. 

Words counted, 134. 

Worship of heavenly bodies, 11. 

Writings, anonymous, 116. 

Writings, the, 116. 

Xerxes, 95. 

Yahwe-narrative, 92. 

Yahwe our Righteousness, 72, 

Yahwe, pronunciation of, 23. 

Yahwe, servant of, 81. 

Yahwists, 33, 42, 44, 66. 

Yemen, 142, 

Yesira, 186. 

Zachariah, king, 48. 

Zealots, the, 125. 

Zechariah ix.-xiv., 116. 

Zedekiah, king, 70, 72. 

Zedekiah, prophet, 53. 

Zerubbabel, 84. 

Zeus, altar of, 99. 

Zion, 87, 62. 

Zoroastrian religion, 140, 












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